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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28237326">Among Us (Old Version)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreakOfYourNature/pseuds/FreakOfYourNature'>FreakOfYourNature</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Monsters Among Us [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe, Prototype (Video Games), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Incredible Hulk (2008)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alex and Bruce have one collective braincell and neither of them uses it, Asexual MC, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Author Is Team Iron Man, Bruce Banner Is a Good Bro, Bruce just fucking rolls with it, Canon? Don't Know Her Either, Civil War Team Iron Man, Gen, He's a sapient virus--those dont have sex drives guys, I Cherry Pick Canon For The Juicy Bits, Isekai, MC is a good bro, MC likes being an eldritch horror, MC takes threat elimination duty very seriously, Male Friendship, Male MC, Not Steve Rogers Friendly, Partially Inspired By Among Us The Game, Salty MC, Science Bros, Seriously Why Does No One Write About The Stealth Potential Of Blacklight?, Sir That Is My Emotional Support Bioweapon, Swearing, The Author Regrets Nothing, Yet Another Isekai By Me, a friendship so platonic you'll cry, author is salty as fuck boi, betty ross is a badass, do not repost my shit, even though civil war doesn't exist in my canon nope, fuck the ending of endgame, go check out my re-write!, in this house we do not leave teammates for dead in siberia, monster bros, no beta we die like men, none of that horseshit, not team Cap friendly, steve rogers can go ingest an entire satchel of richards, thats the polite way of saying steve can go eat a bag of dicks, touch his friends and get eaten, update schedule? never heard of her</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 17:08:58</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>59,834</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28237326</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreakOfYourNature/pseuds/FreakOfYourNature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The Blacklight virus allows for the formation of devastating weaponry created from the subject's own limbs. The Blacklight virus also allows for perfect mimicry of anyone it Consumes. Without viral scanning technology there is almost no way to tell an imposter from the real thing. In one universe, a virus that believes itself to be Alex Mercer focuses on the combat potential. What if in another universe, whoever woke up as Alex Mercer favored the stealthy approach instead?</p><p>WARNING: WORK IS NO LONGER BEING UPDATED, GO CHECK OUT MY RE-WRITE INSTEAD!</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Monsters Among Us [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2126622</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>88</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>182</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>A Collection of Beloved Inserts</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. There Is One Imposter Among Us</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>b/c i have no fucking self control, i'm starting another story. i got sucked back into the prototype franchise and was disappointed by the lack of crossovers, so im writing my own. sorry to people who want me to update my other stories. i do too, believe me, but my muse sucks butt and my new job is exhausting :(</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Alex smiled internally as the door closed behind him. After weeks of pretending to be a Blackwatch mook, steadily and stealthily climbing the ranks by finding convenient times to Consume his ‘higher-ups,’ he was finally alone with one Raymond McMullen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wouldn’t make the same mistake as the first incarnation of the Blacklight virus. Before McMullen even had time to open his mouth to begin debriefing him, Alex surged forward and Consumed him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His head ached briefly as thousands of memories assaulted him. Unlike how the games portrayed, he got every single memory from people he Consumed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thankfully, Alex knew how to sort and partition the memories in his mind, so the headache lasted mere fractions of a second as his mind automatically began sorting the memories into different categories and discarding the mundane, useless memories, leaving only relevant information behind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It wasn’t like he planned on impersonating McMullen for very long, so he didn’t need to construct a personality matrix off of him. Alex was thankful for that, since McMullen was a truly horrible person. Sociopathic and borderline psychopathic, the man literally cared about only one thing, and that was his research.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It didn’t matter how many suffered or died or any number of horrible things, as long as his research was furthered and his own curiosity was sated, the world could burn for all McMullen cared.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex dug through McMullen’s memories, searching for confirmation of things he’d long suspected but never knew for certainty. Hope, Idaho, Project: ALTRUISTIC, Elizabeth Greene, all of it. He found what he was looking for, mostly, but the one thing he truly desired to know eluded him still.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’d need to go to the only man on planet Earth who knew beyond a shadow of a doubt to confirm. McMullen’s memories added more evidence to Alex’s growing pile of suspicions, but Alex wasn’t going to risk it. He had to know for sure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The memories he’d gotten from Elizabeth Greene herself had been much too disjointed and messy for him to get much knowledge out of the experience of Consuming her. What he did get was much more valuable in Alex’s opinion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Unlike the first incarnation of Alex Mercer, the one from canon, he dove into the Hivemind with no hesitation, and he twisted the entire thing to fit his needs. Consuming Elizabeth Greene, the source of the Redlight virus, he’d gained the ability to induce rapid mutations in himself without the need to work off of a genetic template first.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It took longer and required a bit of experimenting, but he’d eventually gained all the abilities the canon Alex Mercer had, all without the need for insane amounts of life-threatening conflict and fighting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No weaponized cancer or Supreme Hunter for him, no sir.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex assumed McMullen’s form and sat down at the man’s personal computer. The relevant passwords were typed in with the familiarity of a man who’d done the same thing a thousand times, and Alex composed an email. He sent it off and got busy waiting.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>General Peter Randall came into his office nearly an hour later, right on time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“McMullen, your email sounded urgent, I take it you’ve finally figured out what in the hell’s going on?” He asked gruffly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Randall was referring to the way Alex had been making various Blackwatch members, both mooks and higher-ranking officials alike, mysteriously disappear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, it’s quite incredible really...” Alex, as McMullen, said in an excited tone. He stood and approached Randall. He smiled a horrible smile and said, “It’s really quite incredible how stupid everyone is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Alex exited the room, he was wearing Randall’s face, and Randall was nothing more than another set of memories in Alex’s ever-expanding collection. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex left the Blackwatch base, feeling relieved that PARIAH wasn’t actually a thing he ever had to worry about, seeing as how the kid apparently didn’t exist in this version of the Prototype universe. </span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Back when he’d first awoken in the test tube, Alex had decided to take a much different approach to the whole situation than the canon version of the Blacklight virus did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But he was getting ahead of himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex had not always been known as Alex, or Blacklight, or even DX-1118 C. Indeed, he’d started out as a young man from a very different world, one that was being ravaged by an entirely different virus.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>COVID-19 was a fucking bitch, and yes, he was still fucking salty about dying to goddamn super-flu when he’d been in his prime. He was one of those ‘lucky’ few he guessed. He’d beaten the odds, but not in a good way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’d caught the ‘Rona and had spent weeks in declining health, before he’d finally croaked it one night, dying after struggling to breathe for hours. He’d eventually passed out from lack of sufficient oxygen to his brain and had suffocated in his own body. 0/10, would not recommend.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He awoke to find himself in a black void, no body to speak of, and what followed was the single trippiest experience of his fucking life--or death--he supposed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All those badly-written stories about people dying and getting isekai’d by ROB’s for their own amusement turned out to be very true. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ROB that had snatched his soul away from the afterlife was a strange one, although not intentionally cruel. They’d made him spin a wheel labelled with different fictional franchises on it, and he’d landed on the wedge labelled [PROTOTYPE], a franchise he was very familiar with.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ROB had then allowed him to pick a series of perks not available in the base game, Gamer-style.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’d been given a set amount of perk points and got to spend them however he wanted before being booted into his new reality to provide entertainment for the ROB. The ROB had told him that if he was entertaining enough, the ROB would reward him, though even if he wasn’t, the ROB wouldn’t punish him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ROB loved seeing what humans would do, the choices people made fascinated this ROB in particular, so he counted himself lucky the ROB wasn’t some sick, sadistic bastard that would torture him or something if he failed to meet the ROB’s expectations.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Secretly, he was ecstatic at the thought of getting to fulfill what he’d always thought to be a fanciful daydream. See, he was a bit of a headcase. He had a secret desire he’d never told anyone, not a single soul. Not even his therapist, because he surely would’ve been shipped off to the loony bin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Above anything else, he’d always desired to not be human. He didn’t have body dysphoria or anything like that, it wasn’t like he didn’t believe his body wasn’t his or that it was wrong or anything like that, and he was fully aware he was perfectly human, but he didn’t want to be. Anything else, anything other than human, and he’d take it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wasn’t a furry or anything like that, it wasn’t a sex thing for him, and he just never saw the point in pretending, since he knew it wouldn’t be real. That was just dress-up, and he wanted the genuine article.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wanted to know what it was like to be free of the burden of humanity, to fly in the sky on wings of his own, to run on four legs, to swim in the deepest oceans. He didn’t want to be human, and now he finally got to see that fantasy become reality. He couldn’t wait. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Maybe this was why the ROB had chosen him? He certainly wouldn’t angst about his new inhuman state of existence. On the contrary, he’d enjoy every second of it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yeah, the fact he’d have to eat people to stay alive was a bit of a bummer, but humanity would always have depraved criminals to snack on, people the world would be better off without, so he wasn’t overly concerned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Anyway, after choosing his perks, he’d passed out and regained consciousness in a test tube, though he only had his sense of touch available, and nothing else. He’d eventually figured out how to parse the vibrations he was feeling into comprehensible sounds, and he realized that he was awake and aware slightly before the events of the first Prototype game.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He used that time to plan, making sure not to move or do anything that would cause the human version of Alex Mercer to become more interested in his new viral form than he already was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A bunch of scientists were working on the Blacklight virus, including Dr. Mercer, and apparently he wasn’t the only sample. He was sort of the backup, and thankfully he wasn’t being experimented on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He spent the long hours in his test tube deciding on what to do. If Dr. Mercer selected his vial when he decided to get the fuck outta dodge, he’d be golden. Blackwatch would corner the man in Penn Station, gun the man down after he released the world’s deadliest virus in a fit of spite, and he could Consume the man’s body and the first phase of his plans could begin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He suspected that would be the case, since if Dr. Mercer just chose another vial and incinerated him along with the rest of the non-sapient samples before bolting, that wouldn’t be very entertaining for the ROB.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sure enough, events unfolded just as he suspected they would, and after infecting the corpse of Alexander J. Mercer, he abruptly found himself with a body again, though it felt nothing like being human.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>How the first Alex had ever thought he was human in the first place was mystery. His body was composed completely of infected biomass, there were no real organs to speak of, besides sensory organs like eyes and ears and stuff. He had a hollow cavity in his chest and a set of vocal chords so he could talk normally, but not much else.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t even have any bones. Instead he had a set of tendrils that were woven so tightly together they were stiff and capable of supporting a ton of weight and enduring massive amounts of force, but they only vaguely followed a normal skeletal structure. It was more like having guidelines for a support structure, if that made any sense.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The cables were still much bendier than bones, and joints weren’t really a thing either. He had total awareness of his body, and could feel every individual cell of viral matter and virally-infected matter that made him up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was pretty sure that that was the result of one of his perks. He’d chosen it because that way he’d be able to trick any viral scanners and have greater control over the virus and his own form so he didn’t accidentally infect shit he didn’t mean to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One consequence of that had been that when Dr. Mercer had smashed the vial of Blacklight that contained Alex’s consciousness on the ground, no one had been infected or died. Not so much as a sniffle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dr. Mercer had been gunned down regardless, his corpse falling right on top of the human-turned-bioweapon who was trying very hard to keep all his airborne particles completely inert while the rest of him Consumed his first bit of biomass.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The airborne particles had all self-destructed after he’d found secure purchase in the cells of Dr. Mercer’s cooling corpse. He silently began remaking the lifeless body into something that could withstand a nuke at point-blank range. Not that he’d ever get the opportunity to test that, exactly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’d long since decided to make greater use of the virus’s ability for stealth and infiltration than had ever been showcased in the games.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Why draw attention to yourself by throwing tanks at helicopters and running around blatantly displaying all your abilities? Knowledge was power, and if there was one thing the virus was good at, it was accumulating knowledge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’d decided to adopt the face and name of Alex Mercer for himself, and he’d be a goddamn ghost, the boogieman of Blackwatch. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When the morgue scientists eventually went to pull Dr. Mercer’s body out of cold storage, they were greeted by an empty cabinet. Dr. Mercer’s body wasn’t there. It hadn’t been there for hours.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Halfway across the city, a low-ranking Blackwatch soldier heard a strange noise in an alleyway and went to investigate. The Blackwatch soldier that came out of that alley acted no different than before, and he returned to base to end his shift. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He talked and made crude jokes with his friends and when morning came, his friends would find that he’d mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the night, never to be seen again. A week later, their commanding officer went missing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was no pattern to the disappearances that anyone could find, both low-ranking and high-ranking members of Blackwatch seemed to vanish mysteriously with no warning. Blackwatch’s numbers began to dwindle, with no cause that anyone could find.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everyone was nervous and paranoid, and things only got worse after the Greene Incident.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Greene Incident referred to the event that happened one night, wherein Elizabeth Greene vanished too, along with any and all data pertaining to her. The infected masses that had taken over that floor were gone as well, down to the last cell. No matter how many swabs or samples the scientists took, not a single trace of Redlight remained.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Every Redlight sample, from every base, just vanished. The data was gone, the samples were gone, it was all lost. If Blackwatch or Gentek wanted to make another bioweapon, they’d have to start completely from scratch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>No one knew what was going on, but they were all scared that they’d be the next to disappear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sheer pandemonium descended once it was discovered that both McMullen and Randall had vanished as well. After that though, no one else disappeared, but Blackwatch was on high alert. Captain Robert Cross was catapulted up the ranks by virtue of being one of the few higher-ups still around.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He became the new head of Blackwatch, and they all remained vigilant for any signs of an outbreak, but none ever came. Although Greene had vanished, along with any and all data pertaining to her, there was no outbreak of any kind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Blackwatch slowly relaxed, and life went on.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Far away, a mutt of a dog smiled in that doggish way dogs do, and it trotted across one of the many bridges connecting Manhattan to the mainland. When it had gotten to the other side, it barked strangely, in a way that almost sounded like laughing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But that was ridiculous. Dogs don’t laugh.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Meet And Greet</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>asdfgkndnv i stayed up till like 2am last night to write this. i was exhausted but i wanted to write, so here ya go</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Alex had successfully completed his self-imposed mission of neutering Blackwatch and Gentek. With all the data and samples of either Redlight or Blacklight destroyed and the scientists that had knowledge of either were Consumed, Alex allowed himself to relax a bit by taking a well-deserved nap. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t know if he even could still sleep, but he knew that he didn’t require it. Alex hadn’t rested once since he woke up in that test tube. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aside from Cross, who he refused to kill, no one alive knew anything about Runners, or Greene, or the virus. Certainly no one knew what he was or what he was capable of. After all, he’d never once been spotted by anyone, and he’d been exceedingly careful to keep it that way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was currently in the form of a stray dog he’d Consumed, and no one paid him any attention at all as he napped. He was free.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>When Alex awoke from his nap, he found himself in a different place than he’d fallen asleep. It was certainly similar, the street names were the same, and the buildings were more or less the same, but things were different.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex immediately got up to begin investigating what in the fuck was happening, only to step on a piece of paper that hadn’t existed two seconds ago.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was a note, addressed to him. He immediately read it, and discovered that the ROB had found his stealthy approach to dealing with Blackwatch incredibly amusing, and had decided to reward him by relocating him to a universe where he didn’t have to worry about Blackwatch or Gentek ever again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It had also informed him that the ROB wouldn’t be interfering in his life again, and that he was free to do as he pleased. Alex had impressed the ROB with his ingenuity and unexpected methods and the ROB felt he’d earned a life with no more meddling, which was only slightly comforting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After reading it, Alex ate the note to destroy it and set off to find out where in the fuck his viral ass had just been dumped.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Alex poured over the internet wearing the face of a young man that looked nothing like Alex Mercer. He greatly preferred his dog form, but appearing human had its perks. Mainly, thumbs and internet access.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex, in dog form, had caught a man in the middle of attempting to mug a young woman, and by the leer on his face, he didn’t plan to just stop at taking the woman’s belongings. Alex had intervened by releasing a sedative gas from his form, colorless, odorless, and completely undetectable.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Both the woman and the man had quickly fallen unconscious, and Alex had Consumed the man swiftly before shifting into the man’s form and using the woman’s cell phone to call an ambulance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was only after he noticed the brand of the woman’s smartphone that he’d really started to panic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Stark phones did not exist back in either of the previous two universes he’d lived, and it implied a lot of things he didn’t like.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>While the ROB wasn’t actually malicious, they were still kind of a dick. While the ROB had been right and he never had to worry about Blackwatch again, he now had to worry about a giant evil purple thumb named Thanos, because his ass had apparently been dumped into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or a version of it at least.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex could always just not interfere at all and basically guarantee his survival, because even if he got Snapped, he’d come back in a few years after the Avengers prevailed and reversed everything, but where was the fun in that?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Judging by the year, early 2008, and his research so far, The Hulk had not yet torn through Harlem, and Iron Man wasn’t a thing yet. Looks like the whole Spiderman: Homecoming ‘8 years later’ thing </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> actually a cock-up on the writer’s part, since it appeared as though the fan-made timeline for the movies prevailed here.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Also, Tony Stark looked just like Robert Downey Jr. and the actual actor didn’t appear to exist in this universe, so that was interesting. He did a quick search for Dr. Bruce Banner, and was happy to see the scruffy visage of Mark Ruffalo’s version of Bruce Banner staring back at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex had always liked Ruffalo’s portrayal of Dr. Banner best.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now...what was his plan to make canon suck less this time? He was on ‘Team Iron Man’ regarding the Civil War bullshit, because while he didn’t notice it when he was watching the movie for the first time, going online had revealed just how shitty Steve Rodgers had been acting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Seriously, the man used Tony’s resources to search for his friend Bucky, who had murdered Tony’s parents, and Rogers had just decided that Tony didn’t need to know anything about that, and neither had Natasha Romanoff. Then he just kept using Tony’s money to search for his parents’ killer while lying right to Tony’s face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then the man ignored the will of 117 countries to go gallivanting across international borders causing destruction and death, all to rescue his brainwashed friend. And that one line about how ‘the safest hands are our own’ just...what?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Don’t even get him started on the epic shitshow that was Infinity War or Endgame. Fucking time travel paradox bullshit where Rogers got to live out his dream life and Tony sacrificed himself to save everyone, orphaning his daughter and leaving Peter and Pepper alone too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>God that ending sucked so hard he refused to accept anything past the first Avengers movie as valid.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Whatever, Rogers was an ass and Alex didn’t like him at all, moving on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If Alex recalled correctly, and his recall was perfect these days, Bruce Banner would be working at a bottling factory in Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro sometime this year. He even had a dog with him in that movie, so maybe if Alex was lucky, he’d get there first and could worm his way into being Bruce Banner’s emotional support animal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man needed companionship and a truckload of therapy, but Alex could only give him one of those, and Bruce was still in that ‘I have to push people away for their own safety’ mentality. But, he was apparently okay with a dog hanging around, so Alex would use that to his advantage.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Looks like I’m headed to Brazil, then. At least food will be easy to come by, that place has a massive drug problem if I recall, and big cities with high poverty rates like that are always chock-full of low-life scum that no one will miss.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex left the public library after that, and headed for the nearest beach. One of the first adaptations he’d acquired through rapid, targeted mutations was negating the virus’s fear of water. It was a glaring weakness, and it was one he didn’t care for at all.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>While Alex swiftly made his way south in the dark waters of the Atlantic, he consumed sea life and was periodically dropping off large-ish balls of biomass on the seafloor that disguised themselves as rocks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With Alex being in control of every cell of himself simultaneously, he was leaving caches of biomass all over the planet just in case something catastrophic happened and his main body was destroyed, he’d be able to make himself a new body from one of the stored biomass balls.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Not that such a thing was very likely though, considering another one of his perks, amusingly called ‘Bio-Mass Effect’. That particular perk allowed him to compress himself into impossibly dense layers of biomass and then fuck with his mass in regards to how his body interacted with the world.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Essentially, he could hold unlimited biomass and then make it so that he weighed no more than a regular person, but he could also undo that effect instantly whenever he felt like it, allowing for his Hammerfists to reach new heights of ‘fuck your shit up’.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He could turn himself into the Juggernaut basically, considering how much biomass he had packed away at any given moment. That biomass could be used to shift himself in dramatic ways, or to heal himself from grievous wounds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Personally, Alex found being a blue whale to be fucking awesome. Being that large was incredible, and he liked it, so long as he had adequate space to maneuver, that was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He hadn’t actually Consumed a blue whale though, those were endangered. Didn’t stop him from taking a tiny bite out of the one he found though. The whale was fine, it was barely a fist’s worth of biomass, and on a creature that large, it might as well have been a paper cut.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t need to totally Consume something to take its form, that was just for memories, and Alex had no desire to have a whale’s memories. All he need for a basic form template was a single strand of DNA. If he wanted to copy stuff like scars though, then he’d need to fully Consume whatever he was trying to copy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Swimming full speed non-stop as a whale had him arriving in Brazil far quicker than he expected, but he wasn’t exactly complaining. He shifted into a large fish to get closer to shore, and then a dog once he got close enough to land.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He changed his dog form into the form of a semi-ambiguous Australian Shepherd mix. It was basically an Australian Shepherd with straight ears and a long curly tail, like a Spitz breed dog had, except with fur colors typical of an Australian Shepherd. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>His dog form featured a Blue Merle color pattern with tan patches on the legs and face, basically the patterns everyone thinks of when they think of an Australian Shepherd. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Unlike a purebred, Alex’s dog form had a long curling tail and pointed ears that stood up straight, and the large white ruff of fur on his chest and neck was extra fluffy, looking almost like a mane.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex liked Australian Shepherds due to their blue eyes, sometimes called ‘ghost-eyes’. They greatly resembled what Alex’s eyes looked like in his default human form. His dog form had the same eyes and was goddamn adorable, and he set off at a swift trot to go consume a local thug and get the lay of the land.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>It had been months, and Alex had been hanging around Rocinha for ages. The locals sometimes fed him scraps and Alex allowed this. He needed to seem like a normal dog, and dogs, especially stray ones, always ate whatever they were offered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Belly rubs were nice too. A few people had tried to adopt him, but Alex always ran away when people tried that. He wanted to be adopted by a very particular human and no one else. Bruce would eventually get picked up by SHIELD, and then the juicy plot things would happen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He would have maybe gone to rescue Tony Stark when he got kidnapped, but as cruel as it sounded, Iron Man needed to be created if the world had a snowball’s chance in hell of making it through the coming shitstorm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>While being a billionaire's pet sounded awesome, Bruce needed him more. Tony had JARVIS and his bots and Happy Hogan and Pepper Potts. Bruce had no one.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The locals begun to get used to seeing him out and about, and he’d been hanging around what he was almost positive was the bottling factory Bruce would end up working at. It was the best place to ensure they ran into one another, and one day, it finally happened.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Alex was hanging around, keeping an eye on the factory’s main doors when he finally spotted his target. Bruce looked tired and disheveled as he slowly made his way home, and Alex covertly followed him, wanting to know where the man lived so Alex could track him down later to accost the man with his cuteness to charm him into taking Alex in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Bruce didn’t go towards any apartment buildings. The man went towards an alley that had a pathetic looking lean-to constructed in it and Alex immediately felt bad for the man. He really had gotten a shit deal in life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>While the days in Rocinha were hot, the nights didn’t often drop below sixty degrees Fahrenheit, so while one was unlikely to die of exposure, that didn’t exactly make it comfortable if you didn’t have a real roof over your head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When night fell, Alex approached the tiny makeshift shelter and started sniffing around. He wasn’t going to take or destroy anything, he was just curious.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey there,” A gentle voice said, “I don’t have any food for you. Go on, shoo,” Bruce said in English.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex stubbornly did not shoo and instead wagged his curly tail and let his tongue loll out of his mouth as he tried to look as harmless as possible. He knew stray dogs could be aggressive sometimes, so he did his best to look like a friendly stray.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce sighed tiredly, “You’re not going to leave me alone, are you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex wagged his tail harder and sat down at the entrance to the lean-to. Bruce held out his hand for Alex to sniff, and Alex did so, curious if The Hulk influenced his scent at all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Turns out, The Hulk did have a scent, and it smelled like repressed anger and something...artificial--clinical almost. Those were all just undertones though, Bruce mainly just smelled like a regular man. A dirty, sweaty man, but a man nonetheless.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex gently licked his hand and butted his head up against it, asking for skritchies. Bruce just huffed a small laugh and began dispensing skritchies.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Strange that you’re not scared of me...most animals run away,” Bruce mused.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That made sense to Alex, there really was quite the undertone of rage, pain, and anger to his scent, which is probably what drove most animals away. Alex didn’t give a flying fuck though, there was literally nothing anyone could do to really hurt him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even nuking him would do jack shit, due to his stores of biomass hidden at the bottom of the sea that he could regenerate from, so The Hulk was a non-threat as far as he was concerned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex was laying down on his side now, and Bruce was giving him a nice belly rub. He enjoyed those a lot in his dog form. Alex let one of his back legs start kicking in joy and Bruce huffed another laugh at his antics.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then Bruce’s stomach growled. Loudly. The man sighed and clutched his stomach, probably due to hunger pains. Judging by the state of his shelter and clothes, Bruce didn’t have enough money to afford much food.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex wasn’t about to let that stand. Bruce was a good man and he didn’t deserve to get hunted down like a rabid animal for merely existing. Thaddeus Ross was getting Consumed the second Alex could get away with it undetected. The man was a douchecanoe of the highest caliber. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex got up after Bruce stopped petting him before departing to get the man something to eat. A lot of fan theories hypothesized that Bruce needed to eat more than a normal person due to The Hulk, and Alex wasn’t sure if that was true or not, but once he was out of sight, he assumed the form of a thug he’d eaten months ago and began hunting for a food cart that was still open.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex held all kinds of useful things inside his biomass, the main one being cash he lifted off of people he Consumed. He had quite the sum amassed from all the Brazilian criminals he’d unalived and he was finally putting it towards a good cause.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He eventually found a street taco stand and purchased a number of tacos. Once he was out of sight he shifted back to his dog form and made his way back to Bruce. It had been at least an hour since he left and it looked like Bruce had decided to go to sleep for the night.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex marched right up to his lean-to and barked twice, holding his cargo in his mouth. The plastic bag’s straps muffled the noise somewhat, but not that much. The man soon emerged, rubbing his eyes and grumbling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You again, I already said I don’t have any...food?” Bruce said confusedly, staring at the bag of tacos Alex was carting around in his mouth. Alex set the bag on the floor and nudged it with his nose towards the man.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce was still just sitting there, dumbfounded, so Alex barked again and nudged the bag again, hoping the man would get the message.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What on earth…?” Bruce said, “Where’d you get this? Did someone give this to you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex merely wagged his tail and tilted his head like he was confused.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Get a grip, Banner, you’re questioning a dog. A dog who brought you tacos,” The man mumbled incredulously. He looked around suspiciously, but of course, no one except dog-Alex and Bruce were in the alley. Bruce took one of the tacos and unwrapped it, sniffing it and scrutinizing it intently. Alex was confused for a moment before he realized that Bruce was probably checking to see if they’d been laced with anything. The man was being hunted by the US government for chrissake.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce then looked up and started scrutinizing Alex himself. Alex let his eyes go unfocused and he lolled his tongue out again, looking for all the world like a dumb animal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You don’t look like a dog the military would employ...too fluffy and cute,” Bruce mumbled, before apparently deeming the taco safe or maybe just being too hungry to care and biting into it hungrily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex was glad he brought so many tacos, the poor man was ravenous. Despite still being visibly hungry, even after all the food, Bruce gave one of the tacos to Alex. Alex was touched by the gesture. Even penniless, Bruce was still sharing what kindness he could.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex ate the taco even though it would do next to nothing for him. Oh, his tendrils could absorb way more than just living flesh, he just didn’t get much out of it. All the clothes the people he Consumed were wearing had to go somewhere, after all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When the food was gone, Bruce thanked Alex before retreating to go to sleep again. Alex squeezed his way into the lean-to and curled up next to the man. Bruce only grumbled about it a bit before dropping off to an uneasy sleep.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>so ya...more universe hopping, yay! i know its dumb and i hate just using ROBs as a plot device like that but i honestly don't give a shit. i needed a way to get my alex to interact with the avengers but not have blackwatch or PARIAH be a thing, so thats my shitty sleep deprived solution. behold the origin of the emotional support bioweapon tag. my version of alex makes for a fantastic emotional support animal. bruce will not be alone while he travels the globe, not on my watch, or alex's watch</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. A Man And His Puppy</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Merry Fuckin Christmas, here's another chappie. ive got a four-day weekend off work, so i've been writing a lot in an attempt to get some buffer chapters</p><p>FYI the term FUBAR is a military acronym that stands for Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition</p><p>EDIT: 12/26/20, edited the chapter to be consistent with new plot</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Bruce had no idea what to think of the strange blue-eyed dog that had brought him food. He thought that maybe the dog belonged to someone, but it wore no collar and stayed with him during the night. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the morning, it had run off again, only to return with more food. The person giving the dog the bags of take-away must have been nearby since the dog hadn’t been gone for very long. He hoped it was just some good Samaritan who noticed how destitute he was at the moment, but Bruce was never that lucky.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He checked the food again for any hidden chemicals or drugs, but he detected nothing. One of the only good things the Other Guy did for him was heightening his senses, so he actually had a sense of smell somewhat comparable to a dog’s when he focused on it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That was what eventually clued him into why the dog felt...off, for lack of a better word. Aside from the clearly heightened intelligence, the dog’s smell was all wrong. Oh, sure, on the surface it smelled like any stray dog did, but much like his own smell, there was clearly an undertone of something artificial. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Below even that was the smell of sickness, but the dog seemed perfectly healthy. Bruce was mildly worried the poor thing had some sort of terminal illness like cancer or something, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it, so he just tried not to think about it too much.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bruce could not figure out what the dog’s deal was. He tried following it a couple of times to try and find the person it was getting food from, but he never succeeded. The dog was a damn ghost when it wanted to be.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The dog followed him around for days, and the locals had begun to notice. To his surprise, the locals knew the dog. Apparently it had been living in the area for months prior to his arrival, which greatly eased Bruce’s paranoid thoughts that the dog was somehow part of a ploy to capture him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They all said that no one owned the dog even though some people had tried adopting it, and they’d never seen it hang around any specific person or receive bags of take-away from anyone, although the locals sometimes fed it scraps. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It had always fled whenever someone tried adopting it or bringing it home with them, so the locals were all a bit surprised that the dog seemed to like him so much. Due to all the evidence pointing towards the dog just being a stray, Bruce’s paranoia relaxed ever-so-slightly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce’s decision to travel to Rocinha had been spur-of-the-moment and not at all planned. That was a polite way of saying he’d had an episode and had torn through the jungle as the Other Guy and had ended up in the area.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After he’d received his first bit of pay from working at the bottling plant, Bruce had finally been able to afford an apartment. The dog had shown up at his door the next day bearing yet more food. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce had let it in and the thing had made itself comfortable on an old musty blanket on the floor that had been left by the previous occupant. Bruce finally accepted that he apparently owned a dog now and stopped trying to shoo it away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was mildly concerned about its safety if he had another episode, but animals all fled in terror when the Other Guy came out to play, so he figured that if that happened, the dog would run away and be safe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Other Guy had never shown interest in chasing after or harming wildlife that he knew of, unlike people, so he felt okay letting the dog hang around.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After a few weeks of the dog absolutely refusing to leave him alone, Bruce had caved and named the animal. The way it followed him around constantly whenever he wasn’t at work had remind him of why the phrase ‘followed like a lost puppy’ had been coined, so he’d named the dog Puppy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Although Bruce now felt responsible for Puppy and enjoyed his company, Bruce couldn’t bring himself to buy a collar for him.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Don’t get attached, Banner. You always end up hurting what you love. Puppy will eventually leave you too, it’s just a matter of time.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Alex, now called Puppy by Bruce, kept himself entertained by systematically taking down various crime syndicates while Bruce was at work. He ate well in Rocinha and made sure to not over hunt in any specific part of the city. He didn’t want to alert anyone to the steadily dropping crime rates of various neighborhoods.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He brought Bruce food less and less, now that the man was able to afford food on his own. Instead, while Bruce was away, Alex stealthily added small amounts of money to the stash hidden in a secret pocket of his bug-out bag. Never enough to be overly noticeable, but enough to help a bit.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce shared his food with him, and since Alex was pretending to be a dog, he ate whatever Bruce gave him, but always left a little extra cash so he wasn’t being a burden.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bruce slowly acquired more belongings, including the infamous laptop. Alex as Puppy watched as the man tried and failed repeatedly to find a way to rid himself of his inner monster. Alex always made sure to demand extra attention from the man to draw him out of his inevitable funk whenever that happened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex constantly nosed the man whenever he looked melancholy or sad, which was often, and he made it his goal to get the sad man to smile even a little each day. Although Alex could tell Bruce was trying hard to not grow too fond of him, the man wasn’t very successful. Alex as Puppy was goddamn adorable and he knew it.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Alex watched as Bruce drew his own blood and sent off a vial to ‘Mr. Blue’ in the hopes of figuring out a cure. Alex mentally prepared for the inevitable shitshow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce spent a lot of time meditating to try and control his ‘condition’. Alex always remained quiet during those sessions. He waited until the man was done before demanding attention. It is those times when Bruce is calmest that he smiles the most.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex wished he would smile more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then, one day, five months after Alex had found Bruce, it happened. Bruce was asleep but Alex was wide awake as usual, keeping watch since he didn’t need to sleep and experimenting with different combinations of genes that might provide useful mutations he could use. He’d already discovered some lethal new combos and was eager to try them out on the fuckwits who would be chasing Bruce across the globe. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>On a night that seemed no different than any other, he heard the barking of the pregnant dog that lived down the street abruptly cut off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex jumped up and tugged at the blankets, nipping and licking frantically at Bruce’s face. The man was groggy and complained about being woken up, but then he heard the faint noises of many pairs of heavy-duty boots making their way up the street.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Suddenly, Bruce was wide awake and he grabbed his bug-out bag that he always had ready. He hastily arranged some pillows and a wig he bought for this exact purpose into a vaguely humanoid shape under the covers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce quickly turned to him and said, “Sorry Puppy, but I’ve got to go! Take care of yourself alright?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce gave him one last scratch behind the ears before repelling out his window using a rope tied securely to the metal faucet embedded in the concrete wall. Alex watched him go before returning to the foot of the bed to aid the charade.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wasn’t worried about losing Bruce’s trail. Alex had his scent memorized and had marked the man with harmless viral particles that clung to his skin, essentially becoming part of the man’s dermal microfauna. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex could track Bruce anywhere on the planet now. He’d catch up eventually. Bruce was his friend and Alex didn’t abandon his friends.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For now, he lie in wait of one Emil Blonsky. There would be no Abomination, not if Alex had anything to say about it. None of the men invading Bruce’s apartment would be leaving alive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex began emitting viral particles by the thousands, easily saturating the air of the apartment. At the moment, the particles were harmless, but they wouldn’t stay that way for long.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex watched the little spy camera sneak its way under the door, and he pretended to be asleep, mentally bracing himself for the imminent explosion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The door was blasted off its hinges and Alex shot to his feet, barking loudly. Multiple tranq darts hit the pile of pillows as well as Alex’s body. The tranqs, while very potent, were engineered for a mammalian target, more specifically a human, not an eldritch viral abomination, so they were next to useless on Alex. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He pretended to fall unconscious and the men moved in. Blonsky yanked back the covers and discovered the deception.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All the men were inside the tiny apartment at that point, and Alex struck while Blonsky was busy communicating with Ross through his radio. Alex’s fallen body didn’t move, didn’t so much as twitch, but abruptly all the viral particles that the men had been breathing in became active. The particles that were not in the bodies of the men all self-destructed simultaneously. Alex didn’t need an outbreak on his paws.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Blacklight had a lethality unmatched by any other known disease. Death occurred  almost instantly, anywhere between two and six seconds. Inside the bodies of the men, the virus ran rampant, replicating and infecting other cells at an impossible rate.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Blood vessels burst, organs failed and liquefied, lungs collapsed, and the men were all dead before they hit the ground. Their brains remained untouched by the virus so far. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It could take up to ten minutes of oxygen deprivation for all brain function to cease, so Alex was very careful to smash all the men’s helmet cams and microphones and radios and any other communications devices without being caught on camera by using his tendrils to destroy them, except for a single comm device.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He then leisurely Consumed the men, tactical gear and all, and reveled in all the juicy info he had on Ross now. He looked at the single working radio and contemplated things.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex could hear Thaddeus Ross screaming on the other end of the comm, demanding a sitrep and info on what in the hell just happened. From his end, it must have looked like the men all just collapsed at once after uncovering the mound of pillows before all the cameras went dark at once.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He contemplated either taunting Ross or leaving a threatening message, but he decided against it. Alex figured that the absolute uncertainty of the entire situation would scare Ross more than anything else. Humans always feared the unknown, sometimes to the degree of severe paranoia. Alex crushed the radio held in a tendril and Consumed it for its component minerals.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The apartment was empty. There was no blood, no bodies, not one scrap of kevlar. Alex bared his dog teeth in a parody of a smile before taking on the form of a crow, lightening himself enough to take flight, and flying out the window.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Bio-Mass Effect is such a bullshit hax perk, but fuck playing fair.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Although he could have just made himself lighter than air and floated right out the window as a dog, that would be very odd and suspicious if anyone saw him, so he went with the stealthy option. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Crows were everywhere and no one would pay him any attention, despite his still ice-blue eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex had decided to keep his eye color, no matter his form as a means to throw anyone off his scent in terms of his true capabilities. If someone eventually figured out he could shapeshift, if all his forms had a similar feature, even when it would be detrimental to have a tell like that, they’d think it was the one thing he couldn’t change about himself and he could keep the true extent of his abilities in the dark. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>That way, he would have total anonymity by just taking on someone’s form completely, eyes and all, and no one would ever suspect him.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>All warfare is based on deception, after all, and these assclowns have just declared war. Those jarheads won’t know what hit them.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex winged his way into the night sky, his unnatural viral senses letting him track Bruce down with unerring accuracy. By the time he reached the factory though, he could already hear the roars and screams and gunshots.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Blonsky’s team wasn’t the only one sent to retrieve Bruce, Alex realized. Hulk exploded out the back wall of the factory and tore through the nearby jungle, disappearing into the foliage. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex descended to the ground before retaking his dog shape and trotting inside. Men were lying all over the place, dead or dying, and the large tanks of greenish soda were spraying liquid everywhere. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A few soldiers, mostly the ones with long-range guns, were still fine, but Alex didn’t plan on leaving any witnesses. He took on his favorite human form, that of one Dr. Alexander J. Mercer, complete with iconic hood and leather jacket, and he was able to sneak up on the soldiers by creating chromataphore cells on the surface of his form, allowing himself to disguise himself like a cuttlefish or octopus by changing the color and the texture of his skin to blend in with his surroundings.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex was excited to get to practice his stealth combat again and equipped his Blade on his right arm and his Claws on his left before he moved in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The remaining soldiers were all scared shitless by Bruce ‘Hulking Out’, so their panicked communications with Ross neatly disguised the soft sounds of Alex sneaking up behind stragglers and picking them off one by one.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Stealth Consume is such a useful skill.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex picked his way through the aftermath, Consuming any other bodies he came across, whether they were still clinging to life or not. Honestly, some of the deaths he was responsible for that night were more mercy kills than anything. Massive blunt force trauma was a nasty way to go. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>By the time the few remaining soldiers figured out their buddies were disappearing, it was too late for the rest of them. Alex Consumed them all in one fell swoop and moved on, not bothering to change back into his Puppy form. Who would be around to see anything? Alex had already eaten them all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He eventually found Bruce’s bug-out bag laying discarded off to one side. He looked through the bag and was pleased to discover that nothing was damaged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The laptop had been wrapped up in what few changes of spare clothes Bruce had which protected it from any damage when the bag was thrown off to the side. The money was all still there too. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>If he took the bag, Ross wouldn’t have access to the laptop that he used to track Bruce down in the movie, so perhaps Alex could prevent the university incident from happening at all? That would be fantastic for continuing to fly under the radar, but would mess up his future knowledge. Hmm...decisions, decisions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>On the one hand, it was part of Bruce’s character development, and it helped him see that Hulk was capable of recognizing allies and protecting people when he shielded Betty Ross from a missile, but on the other hand it was probably traumatizing for Bruce...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex re-zipped the bag and put it on before he turned and bolted out the hole Hulk had made not even an hour prior. His legs ate up ground faster than they had any right to, and Alex hauled ass through the jungle to track down his friend.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Behind him, an empty, destroyed factory sparked and smoked.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Far away, General Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross contemplated the absolute shit-show the whole operation had become. The entire situation with Banner himself had been completely FUBAR, but what concerned him more was the disappearance of the entire strike team.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Every single man he’d sent after Banner had gone missing. There were no clues as to their whereabouts, and no threats or ransom demands had been made and no one had any clue as to what had happened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One minute he’d be communicating with his men, and the next they’d gasp quietly before an odd squelching noise could be faintly heard before all communications ceased abruptly, like the devices had been destroyed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All the cameras went dark too, with no indication of the men’s assailant at all, no matter how many times the eggheads re-watched the footage. The entire situation was a certifiable clusterfuck, and Ross was wondering how he’d cover up the deaths of so many men. Perhaps a ‘training accident’? That BS excuse usually worked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ross didn’t put much hope in recovering the men. Something in his gut told him they were all dead. Had Banner cocked up again, and accidentally created another monster like him, but one that was somehow stealthy?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>God, Ross hoped not.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>so yea, the factory incident still happened, but blonsky's dead now, so no abomination fight in the middle of Harlem. Puppy totally ate the entire military strike squad and no one knows what in the fuck's happening. blackwatch 2: electric boogaloo, now with even more eldritch abomination!</p><p>EDIT: 12/26/20, I changed bits of this chapter after i wrote a bunch of chapters, and then deleted them or massively altered all of them after realizing the story was straying too far from the original idea i had. story is now a bit more serious and humor i wrote while high on sleep medication that failed to let me sleep has been removed.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Kings Of The Jungle</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>ATTENTION!! go re-read chapter 3 because i edited it and added in a few extra lines so it matches better with the direction this story is going</p><p> i wrote a whole bunch of buffer chapters and then scrapped them because i felt they were starting to stray too much from the original premise of the fic. this is the improved, re-written version. enjoy :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Alex enjoyed practicing parkour as he raced through the jungle. It hadn’t taken him much time after Hulk decided to bugger off into the trees to take care of all the military men and any other potential witnesses, but Hulk felt like he was miles away already.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Interestingly, the viral markers he’d left on the man’s skin had needed to adopt traits of a radiotrophic bacterium in order to survive. Hulk put out much more radioactivity than Bruce did, enough to kill microscopic lifeforms on his skin in a relatively short amount of time at least.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thankfully, Blacklight was bullshit, and Alex had made a habit of Consuming at least a sample of biomass from any edible lifeform he came into contact with, including microbes. Alex’s skin held no microsystem of bacteria because he passively absorbed and Consumed any microscopic lifeform stupid enough to try and live on him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex’s nutrients were his own and he wasn’t sharing!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He had the genomes of some very exotic species available to use, and the Consumption of Redlight allowed him to extrapolate a lot of potential genetic possibilities from a single sample.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thus, Alex’s genome adjusted itself to allow for radiotrophagy, completely negating any harmful effects constantly hanging around Hulk’s radioactive green ass might have had, and allowing Alex to passively absorb any stray radiation the man put out, no matter his form.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex’s mere presence reduced the amount of radiation the man expelled into his surroundings and it gave Alex a small but still noticeable boost to his energy levels.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Currently, Alex was traipsing through the Amazon Rainforest, a place famous for its biodiversity and abundance of life, and the bioweapon was having a fucking field-day at all the samples he was collecting. He had his thermal vision active, and any time he came across a nearby creature, he made a quick detour to Consume the life form in question.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His tendrils were out and active, the tips alive with infectious viral vectors. Already he’d acquired samples of poison dart frogs and various other creatures like colorful tropical birds. Alex was especially excited about the uses of poison dart frog venom though. He liked anything that made him deadlier.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After sprinting several dozen miles at near fifty miles per hour, he stopped at the base of a rocky hill and made a decision. His form split in two and one half dissolved into a mass of squirming tendrils that burrowed into the soft ground. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>His consciousness was in both pieces simultaneously, like it was with all the other pieces of biomass separated from his active body, though those sections had their senses dulled by an order of magnitude so he didn’t get sensory overload. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Normally, he could only sense them enough to know that they hadn’t been messed with or moved, but the newly created chunk of active biomass had all its senses active at the moment. Controlling two bodies at once was moderately difficult, but it was getting easier.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The newly separated chunk of biomass dug deep into the earth, many miles below the surface. Once the temperature started rising considerably, the tendrils stopped their descent and formed into a sphere. It then grew many layers of biological armor to shield itself from both the heat and pressure, incorporating Alex’s own special blend of biometal into its armor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With the cache of biomass safely out of reach of any curious humans, the biomass stilled and went dormant after forming a few rudimentary organs that produced energy from the heat, like a biological thermal generator. He’d figured out how to do so after Consuming various forms of extremophile bacterium.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The biomass ball would be self-sustaining without having to Consume anything to fuel itself, though it could only do so because it was expending next to no energy due to it being immobile and not very active.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was unfairly difficult for Alex to create new cells on his own to infect. He was capable of gathering energy from a variety of sources, including photosynthesis, but it just took so much effort most of the time that he didn’t bother.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Back on the surface, Alex took back off into the jungle undergrowth. With having offloaded several tons of biomass, Alex was able to reduce the amount of mental power required to enable ‘Bio-Mass Effect’ for his main, active body by a large margin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>While he could store effectively infinite biomass due to the perk, it took a meagre amount of focus to keep it active, a requirement that increased with the amount of mass he wanted to reduce in weight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He could neatly sidestep having to constantly think about keeping it active due to how his mind worked, though. His Hivemind effectively decentralized his consciousness so that he existed in every bit of his mass at the same time, which allowed him to sort of focus different parts of himself on different tasks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With all the bits of himself dotted across large parts of the earth, those parts that were inert and immobile could focus on purely mental tasks, like keeping himself from collapsing buildings or sinking into the ground due to his fat ass compressing several tons of mass into the shape of a medium-sized dog or a regular-sized human.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now that Alex only massed a few tons instead of the dozens he’d massed before, a lot less of his immediate brain power and focus was being taken up by keeping himself from sinking through the ground.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Alex eventually caught up with Bruce, who was still in his Hulk form. There were a lot of fan theories and debates about whether or not Hulk was actually a whole separate person living in Bruce’s brain, a split personality, or if Hulk was merely just Bruce’s consciousness in a more primal state, and Alex didn’t actually know which one was true.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The way Bruce had described it in Thor: Ragnarok made it sound like a case of Dissociative Identity Disorder gone horribly wrong, with the Hulk personality having been the one in charge on Sakaar. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The way Hulk and Bruce had merged in Avengers: Endgame also supported this theory, because split personalities could be merged back together into a single person with treatment and therapy, which is what appeared to have happened in that movie.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>However, what Alex had witnessed during Bruce’s meditations and occasional frustrated and fearful ramblings, along with Hulk’s behavior in the 2008 Incredible Hulk movie seemed to support the ‘primal monkey hindbrain’ theory more in Alex’s opinion. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex wasn’t sure which theory would prove to be true, due to the official MCU timeline having already been proven false in whichever dimension or universe he was currently inhabiting, so maybe other things were different as well?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex didn’t know, but he’d be supportive no matter what the case turned out to be, because that’s what friends did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Alex finally caught up to Hulk, he retreated a small ways and stashed Bruce’s backpack near a log to keep it safe, just in case things went south.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk was currently stomping around tearing trees out of the ground and just generally wrecking shit when Alex stepped into the clearing, not afraid in the slightest. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk did not appear to notice him at first, so Alex just sat quietly on the ground, waiting for the big green behemoth to notice him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk continued stomping around and huffing. Then, something seemed to catch his attention, and Hulk began sniffing the air repeatedly. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Well, that confirms my theory that Hulk, and likely Bruce too, have enhanced senses. I wonder how good his sense of smell is?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk eventually turned around and spotted Alex sitting there, and he growled deeply and bared his blunt teeth, tensing up, likely anticipating a fight of some sort.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex merely blinked and didn’t move otherwise, curious as to what Hulk would do with a human that wasn’t scared of him or hostile. The Hulk squinted at Alex, then his face seemed to harden and The Hulk roared at him. Loudly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex thought it was a very impressive roar, but if The Hulk’s goal was to scare him off, he’d have to do a lot better than just some hot air.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex yawned, lazily covering his mouth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk blinked at him in confusion for a moment, likely used to people either screaming and running for the hills or shooting at him. Hulk growled at him again, taking a threatening step towards him but otherwise not coming any closer.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk roared at him again, this time throwing the large chunk of shattered tree he was gripping in one meaty fist at Alex. The huge log of wood flew right over Alex’s head to crash harmlessly into the undergrowth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex raised a single eyebrow before getting up, turning around and leaving the clearing. Alex wasn’t running away though.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shortly after Alex left, he returned to the clearing, carrying the large battered log above his head, lifting hundreds of pounds of wood in his comparatively tiny human-looking arms. He walked right up to Hulk, ignoring the threatening and agitated noises he was making and dropped the huge log at Hulk’s bare green feet. The log impacted the ground with a muffled boom.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex looked up at the behemoth before him and flatly stated, “Here, you dropped this.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then Alex had to dedicate every spare ounce of brainpower into ruthlessly controlling his expression so he didn’t topple over laughing at the stunned expression on Hulk’s big, green face.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Hulk ran headlong into the jungle, even more furious than he was normally. The puny soldiers had shot their puny guns at him which was annoying, but Hulk was mostly mad that he had to leave Puppy behind. Hulk liked Puppy. Puppy wasn’t scared of Hulk when he was puny, unlike most animals, even if Puppy smelled funny. Puppy was good company, and now Hulk had to run away because of the stupid puny soldiers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk ran for a long time before stopping. He ended up in a medium-sized clearing and began venting his rage on the nearby plant-life, imagining it was Ross’s stupid face he was smashing and not boring trees. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk raged at the unfairness of it all. He raged because he didn’t like sleeping in the cold, he raged because he didn’t like being hungry all the time, he raged because he didn’t like being attacked and hunted down by Ross, and he raged because he had to leave his only friend behind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk continued wrecking the nearby trees, but as he was doing so, he picked up on a most unusual smell that was vaguely familiar.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The smell of sickness and death, with a slight undertone of blood and decay wafted into Hulk’s nostrils from somewhere behind him. Hulk turned around and spotted a puny man sitting on the ground on the other side of the clearing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk growled at him on reflex. If he was smart, he would run away and leave Hulk alone. It was completely dark out, but Hulk had much better night vision than a human, so maybe the man hadn’t seen him somehow? Hulk was green like the trees, so maybe he blended in better than he thought?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then Hulk noticed that the man was the thing that smelled like sickness and death with a sickly-sweet undertone of decay. Again, that specific combo of smells tickled at something in his brain, but he wasn’t sure what.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk roared at the man after seeing that his growl hadn’t scared him off, and he was annoyed to see that he still wasn’t phased at the sound. The sound of Hulk’s roar had made grown men pee themselves and he was annoyed that this man didn’t smell scared at all. Was he just stupid?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk was growing frustrated that this stupid human wasn’t leaving him alone, so Hulk threw the log he was holding at the man, though he purposefully aimed above his head. It was the last warning the man would get.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Finally, the man seemed to understand and he stood up and left the clearing. Hulk barely had time to feel relieved that the strange-smelling man left him alone and didn’t try to attack him before the man came back, this time carrying the massive log Hulk had thrown at him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Thing, for it clearly wasn’t human, that smelled like sickness and blood and death walked fearlessly up to him and dropped the log at Hulk’s feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Here, you dropped this.” The Thing said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk was shocked to say the least. He rumbled uncertainly and shuffled his enormous feet. He wasn’t sure what to do. The Thing didn’t smell scared or hostile at all and Hulk wasn’t sure what to do with a creature like that. Why wasn’t it scared of him?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>...Was the Thing like Hulk?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk looked at the Thing more closely and sniffed the air in curiosity. “Why Thing not scared of Hulk? Is Thing like Hulk? Why Thing smell familiar? Hulk never seen Thing before.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Thing stuck its hands into the pockets of its leather jacket and replied, “Well, I’m not scared of you because you’re my friend, even if you don’t recognize me. I usually look different than this, but I didn’t ever bother changing my smell, so I guess you recognize that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then the Thing leaned over, and in a whirl of strange black and red vines, took on a shape Hulk was much better acquainted with.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Puppy?” Hulk asked. He’d have been suspicious that they were truly the same, but they had the same eyes and the Thing’s smell didn’t change at all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Hulk was puny, his nose wasn’t as good, so he hadn’t noticed the sick smell as much. Now that Hulk was no longer puny, his nose was even better and the sick scent was a lot clearer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Puppy reared up and turned back into a man with more of those strange vines, and his bright blue eyes shone out from under his hood.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, you called me Puppy when you thought I was just a dog, but my real name is Alex. My dog shape has its uses, but being a stellar conversationalist isn’t one of them. It’s nice to meet you for real and be able to talk to you,” The Thing-that-was-Puppy said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It extended one arm towards Hulk, and it took him a second to realize that Puppy wanted to shake hands with Hulk. Like an equal. Hulk found he liked being talked to like a person and not just screamed at and called a monster.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Puppy’s hand was puny, so Hulk extended a single finger for Puppy to shake. Puppy took his finger and smiled a smile that looked more like a dog baring its teeth than anything else. Hulk grinned back in much the same way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They shook hands and Hulk noticed that Puppy’s grip was much stronger than a human’s, and Hulk remembered the giant log Puppy had carried before.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Puppy strong like Hulk?” He asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Puppy grimaced a bit at the name but said nothing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I guess I am. Why? You wanna arm wrestle or something?” Puppy said with a teasing grin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk hadn’t thought of that but became excited at the prospect of someone strong enough to challenge him. Hulk nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Puppy strong, but Hulk strongest!” He declared confidently. Hulk had never met someone who was on his level strength-wise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oooh, them’s fightin’ words, big boy! You’re on!”</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Alex was having a blast. When you weren’t shooting at him or actually attacking him, Hulk was pretty chill. What started out as an arm-wrestling competition evolved, or perhaps </span>
  <em>
    <span>de</span>
  </em>
  <span>volved, into playful fighting and full-body wrestling. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of course, to an outside observer, it probably looked like they were trying to kill each other, considering they were throwing trees and boulders and other things and slamming at each other into the ground, but it was all in good fun.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk indeed proved to have superior raw strength, but Alex was adaptable and could morph his entire body like taffy so they were pretty evenly matched when they weren’t going all out. Of course, Alex’s strength also scaled pretty linearly with how much mass he had available and he massed only a few tons at the moment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Also, if Alex really wanted to kill Hulk, he’d just have to sneeze wrong and the whole thing would be all over. Hulk’s, and by extension Bruce’s, main defense against becoming sick was being a walking gamma generator, which had a tendency to kill any outside microbes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of course, Alex was Blacklight, and Blacklight was bullshit, so Alex had already adapted to be immune to radiation months ago. Alex had already obtained samples of Bruce’s cells and truly unique DNA as a consequence of living with the man for five months, and while it would definitely be more difficult than infecting a regular human, even the Hulk wasn’t immune to Blacklight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Though Hulk had insane stamina, it wasn’t endless, unlike Alex’s, so eventually he claimed to be tired and went to sleep. Alex promised to keep him safe while he was ‘puny’ and so Hulk dropped off to sleep quickly and reverted into Bruce, who slept like the dead.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex debated whether or not to bring Bruce in on his secret, but he decided to take a ‘wait and see’ approach. If Bruce showed signs of remembering what happened as Hulk, Alex would spill the beans, or some version of the truth, at least. If he had zero recollection, then there was no reason Alex couldn’t continue to be Puppy, Bruce’s faithful, furry friend.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex rehearsed the story he decided to go with, which basically boiled down to ‘aliens’. No, really. Alex’s cover story to avoid having to say he was from a different dimension and knew some of the future was to claim he was a viral bioweapon made by an alien race.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Xandarians looked just like Terrans after all, and Alex did have extensive knowledge of the wider galaxy due to trawling wikis in his spare time and watching all the MCU movies, including both Guardians of the Galaxy movies.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He could claim that he was still figuring out his powers at that point and his memory-copying ability wasn’t perfected back then so he had large gaps in his knowledge of the stars, but he knew the basics.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He explained how he got on Earth by using the Ravagers as a convenient excuse. Peter Quill had gotten abducted from Earth in 1988, and Hope, Idaho had occurred in 1964, and Alex had Consumed many people that had been alive at the time, so he had first-hand memories, and thus knowledge of the 60’s and onward.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex’s explained it like this: After he gained unexpectedly gained sapience in a lab on a planet called Halfworld, a place in the MCU known for extensive cybernetic and genetic experiments, he rebelled against his creators who engineered him to be an unstoppable viral bioweapon that would only affect certain species.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex of course wanted no part of that, and destroyed his creators and all the data used to make him and escaped aboard a starship fleeing the planet. That ship was later attacked by the space-pirates known as Ravagers, and Alex secretly stowed away on the Ravager ship, which just so happened to be owned by one Yondu Udonta.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Yondu headed to Earth to abduct Peter Quill, Alex departed the ship after hearing from the crew that Terra was a primitive world of no interest to the wider galaxy and also under travel restrictions due to its connection to Asgard.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ever since the late 1980’s, Alex had been a resident of Earth, perfecting his Consumption ability and his mimicry, along with all his other biological weaponry, though he rarely used it. He’d been all over the world, keeping his head down and avoiding notice from anyone. His meeting with Bruce had been chance and Alex stuck around out of curiosity.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The story was perfect, and no one could ever refute it. It explained how he knew all about Earth things and pop culture while also existing, since nothing even remotely like Blacklight existed in this universe, as far as he knew.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It provided a good cover as to why he knew about space and other alien cultures, but also why his knowledge was so spotty, while having perfect knowledge of Earth things.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His cover story sorted, Alex took on his Puppy form and retrieved Bruce’s bug-out bag from where he’d stashed it and curled up next to Bruce. When Bruce’s mostly-naked body began to shiver in the cooler night air, Alex forced the tendrils inside his body to rub together faster, which produced more heat due to the friction.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex’s body temperature was higher than a human’s normally, due to the movement of all his tendrils inside his body, but Bruce had never noticed because a dog’s normal body temperature was higher than a human’s anyways.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This time Alex was consciously making his internal tendrils move more, so his body began radiating heat like a hot water bottle and Bruce curled around the fluffy warm thing next to him in his sleep.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>While Bruce slept, Alex kept watch like he always did.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>so alex comes up with a good cover story and arm wrestles the hulk for funsies. poor hulk has just been hated and shot at whenever he came out, so alex gave him a positive experience to try and offset the bullshit that is hulk's existence. i imagine he'd be excited about hanging out with someone who was nearly as strong and even more durable than he is, who likes him and doesn't attack him and who hulk doesnt have to worry about breaking :)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Congratulations! Your Puppy Has Evolved Into Alex!</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>yay new chappie! :) fun fact: radiotrophic organisms are a real thing! fungus that eats radiation was discovered in Chernobyl so huzza for including sprinkles of real science in my bullshit fantasy space virus ;D</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Bruce awoke slowly at first, but he shot bolt upright when he realized he was laying on the wet jungle floor and not his tattered mattress. He took in the sights of the jungle, his nearly-disintegrated pants, and wept.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>How many people have I killed this time?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce was so wrapped up in his own despair and self-loathing that he almost missed the feeling of something very warm and furry brushing up against his back. Almost.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce twisted around and was very glad he was already sitting down, because the sight of Puppy sitting there would have knocked him over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How…?” Bruce murmured, amazed at the sight of his faithful companion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Puppy barked once and licked at his face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ack! No, Puppy, stop!” Bruce said as he stood up, wiping at his face to remove the dog slobber. As he stood up, the tattered remains of his pants started to fall down, waistband stretched far beyond its limits. He hastily grabbed hold of them to stop them from falling down, and Puppy tilted his head at Bruce before he turned around and held up Bruce’s bug-out bag that had been left behind at the factory in his mouth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My bag? How did…?” Bruce began before he spotted how destroyed his surroundings were. While he knew all the destruction was likely due to the Other Guy rampaging, some things didn’t quite match up, like the absolutely massive claw marks in the trunk of one tree.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As far as Bruce knew, the Other Guy didn’t have claws, so the gouges were quite suspicious.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce was then assaulted with green-tinged memories. That happened sometimes when something triggered memories from the Other Guy like a trippy PTSD flashback. They were usually very brief and hazy, accompanied by feelings of rage and pain, but this flashback was different.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It seemed clearer than what he usually got, and the feelings that accompanied it were ones of confusion, then joy, followed by a soft, contented happiness and a fierce sense of competition.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>For whatever reason, the Other Guy had imagined wrestling with some sort of creature that sometimes looked like a man, sometimes like Puppy, and sometimes like a flailing ball of tentacles. They didn’t seem hostile to each other, the emotions tied to the memories weren’t scared or angry at all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>On the contrary, it was the first and so far only time that Bruce could recall the Other Guy feeling something other than rage or pain or fear, or some variation of the three.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everything about that sequence of events screamed ‘impossible’, but Bruce was a scientist, and he believed in the power of evidence and logic, so he decided to find a way to test his working theory.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Puppy himself was sitting on the ground, looking at Bruce expectantly, and Bruce shook himself out of his musings and began digging around in his bag for a spare change of clothes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Having located and donned a pair of intact pants and a shirt, Bruce turned back to what appeared to be his dog and discreetly sniffed the air. The scent of sickness Puppy always seemed to carry around smelled much stronger now, but it was definitely the same smell, and it was emanating from the animal sitting on the ground. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He stared Puppy right in the eyes, and feeling foolish, he said, “You can come out, I already know you’re not really a dog.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Much to Bruce’s shock, his dog opened its mouth and a remarkably human voice said, “Well, damn. Really should have guessed you’d suss me out, especially after yesterday. Out of curiosity, what gave me away?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the fuck.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The thing-that-might-have-been-Puppy barked in laughter at Bruce’s declaration, almost sounding like a mix between a dog barking and a human laugh. It was a very unsettling sound. Bruce shakily sat down on the ground to begin his calming breathing exercises.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Whatthefuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuck…” Bruce chanted under his breath after he’d gotten his racing heart-rate under some semblance of control. The only good thing about having an episode was that it was much harder to have them back-to-back, so he could afford to panic a little right then.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After Bruce got a bit of a grip on himself, he asked quietly, “What are you?”</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Alex was only slightly surprised he’d been found out so quick, but that was fine, he’d planned for this. The man had, like, seven PhD’s, so Alex really should have seen this coming. Previously, he hadn’t planned on revealing himself as anything other than a dog until the confrontation at the university, but with Alex having retrieved the infamous laptop Ross had used to figure out where Bruce would be going, Alex wasn’t even sure if such an event would ever come to pass, so he might as well face the music now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Structures in his throat shifted and rearranged themselves to allow him to speak like a human despite not having the proper mouth shape or teeth. It was based off of the syrinx of a macaw, with a few extra modifications to make it sound like he wanted it to. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex once again stole the voice of a dead man to use as his own. Dr. Mercer may have been a horrible person, but Alex thought he had a nice voice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If things didn’t go well, Alex wasn’t sure what he would do. He genuinely cared for Bruce now and didn’t want to leave or cause him grief, but if Bruce wanted him to leave, he would.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At least then he could dedicate himself to wiping Ross and his goons off the face of the planet, along with anyone else who came after his friend. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He used his voice to casually ask how Bruce had figured him out and watched as Bruce swore and seemed to have a minor breakdown on the spot. Alex only laughed a little at his expression and patiently waited for Bruce to calm down a bit, and when the man asked him a question in a small voice, Alex responded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What am I? Well, depending on who you ask, I’m all sorts of things,” Alex said, opening his mouth just a little to allow the sound to escape properly, but otherwise not moving his mouth or tongue.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce’s eyes were wide, green-flecked brown meeting icy-blue. His face was slack with shock, and a bit of fear. Bruce seemed too surprised to respond at the moment, so Alex plowed forwards.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Personally, I’d describe myself as a horror beyond what the greatest minds of this planet could ever think up. You call yourself a monster, but trust me when I say you’re not even close. Not by a longshot. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As you’ve probably guessed by now, I’m not really a dog. I never was. I’m sorry I joined you under false pretenses. I apologize for the deception, but I hope we can continue to travel together as friends, if you’ll have me,” Alex said, looking only mildly guilty.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex had no problems lying, he’d be a shitty infiltrator if he did. His acting and lying skills were beyond humanly good, considering he could control the smallest movements of his body, even pupillary response, but lying to someone he considered a friend was different.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He could even choose to stop feeling emotions, since that was all dictated by chemicals that he could shut off at any time, but he hated doing that. Though he didn’t ever want to be human in body ever again, it was your mind that truly determined your humanity in Alex’s opinion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Though he’d adopted some inhuman behaviors and attitudes over the year and some months he’d been the incarnation of Blacklight, at his core he still thought mostly like a human and understood intimately how humans thought and what their logic was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you want from me exactly?” Bruce asked warily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex scratched himself behind an ear with a back leg and responded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You deaf or somethin’? I just told you I want to keep being friends and traveling with you. We’re both wanted by the government, or well, I would be if anyone knew about me, but semantics. Misery loves company and all that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce gazed at him flatly. “Aside from the obvious, why would the government want you? Are you a shapeshifter? The memories are a bit hazy, but the Other Guy recalls you turning into a man, and some sort of tentacle ball.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex laughed again, “‘Are you a shapeshifter?’ he asks! Ha! Bruce, I am THE shapeshifter. Skrulls have nothing on me. Bunch of fucking amatuers. Besides that, my whole body is a weapon of mass destruction, and what government wouldn’t want a piece of that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s a Skrull?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shapeshifting aliens that specialize in infiltration currently recovering from losing a war with the Kree, another group of aliens who are ruled by an AI. Bunch of xenophobic pricks, the Kree,” Alex said, nodding his head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce again looked shocked and asked, “Are you an alien too?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s one way to put it! By your definitions, I suppose I am,” Alex conceded, “To me, humans are the aliens, but I suppose I’ve just grown too used to seeing you bald monkeys wandering around everywhere to really notice crap like that anymore.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce looked fascinated by the prospect of other alien cultures, but he managed to restrain himself and address the problem at hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If you’re an alien, then why are you here on Earth? ...You’re not planning an invasion or anything, are you?” Bruce asked worriedly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pfft, fuck no. Why’d I do that? Not like I have others of my own kind to even invade </span>
  <em>
    <span>with.</span>
  </em>
  <span> I’m the only one of my kind in the entire cosmos, and I fucking plan on keeping it that way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re the only one left? Why wouldn’t you want others like you around?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s less like I’m the only one left and more like I was the only one ever made. I was brought to life in a lab half a universe away to be a weapon, but I wasn’t about to stand for that. I killed the rat bastards in charge of my creation, destroyed the data, and did a runner. Earth is a backwater dirtball that no one in the wider galactic community gives a rat’s ass about, so it was the perfect place to disappear. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Not that anyone currently alive even knows about me aside from you, though, so I’ve mostly just kept my head down and played tourist,” Alex explained. “Hey, is it cool if I get out of this dog shape? Looking up at you is giving me a non-existent crick in my neck.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uhh...sure…” Bruce murmured.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sweet. Not that I needed your permission or anything, but just springing it on you seemed kinda rude, and I didn’t wanna be </span>
  <em>
    <span>that guy.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Nobody likes </span>
  <em>
    <span>that guy.”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Alex said before resuming his favorite human shape, complete with hood and edgy leather jacket. Alex dubbed it his Mercer form.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce inhaled sharply, taking half a step back at witnessing Alex’s transformation. Alex stretched his arms over his head, not that he really needed to, but he enjoyed the look of awe on Bruce’s face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ahhh…! That’s better. I missed having thumbs!” Alex laughed before turning to Bruce and extending his hand. “Name’s Alex. Try to actually use it this time. Your bigger, greener self insisted on calling me Puppy no matter what shape I was in, for whatever reason.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce warily shook the offered hand. “Sorry about that. I didn’t...hurt you did I?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You kidding? That was the most fun I’ve had in ages! I’m a tough bastard, and blunt force trauma is, like, the least effective way to fight me, period. You really wanna fight, bring a nuke and then we’ll talk.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Right…” Bruce looked at him. “For an alien, you sure seem informed about human customs and language.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I’d fucking hope so! I’ve only been here since the late 80’s! Gotta say, you humans sure have come a long way in a relatively short period of time. Technology is a fascinating thing, although it makes keeping a low profile a pain in the ass. Cameras and shit everywhere.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tell me about it…” Bruce said. “Wait, you said something about your body being a weapon? How does that work?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex gave Bruce a look. “My past isn’t a happy place for me, a sentiment I’m sure you understand, but you’re my friend, so I’ll tell you. Don’t go spreading it around, okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce nodded firmly. “Sorry, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. I didn’t mean to pry, but I just stick my foot in my mouth sometimes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry about it, you didn’t know. I know this is all probably super weird for you, but I consider you a friend. My only friend basically. I’ve never actually ever talked to anyone about this shit, so forgive me if my explanation’s sub-par,” Alex took a breath and started explaining.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was experiment DX-1118 C, designated Blacklight. I am an artificially created viral biological super-weapon capable of wiping out life from the face of this planet--any planet, really--by sneezing wrong. I wasn’t meant to have a mind of my own, much less attain sapience, but I did anyway. My creators intended to use me to kill millions, maybe billions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I decided not to bow to their whims. I didn’t want to be what they made me. I refused to be their weapon, so when they sought to destroy me, I fought back and destroyed them first. Not through open warfare, but subterfuge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One of my main abilities is the ability to absorb another living thing to copy its genetic code and assume its form. I call it Consuming. If I Consume my victim, as long as the brain wasn’t destroyed prior to me Consuming them, I can take their memories too. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>All their deepest, darkest secrets laid bare. Their personality subsumed, copied, and assimilated for my own use. If the possibility existed for me and the person I was imitating to be compared side-by-side, no one would be able to tell the difference, not without genetically testing the both of us, and even still, if I had adequate warning, not even then. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of course, back then I hadn’t perfected my technique. I was new to the world and didn’t have any memories or personality to call my own, so I stole them from others and learned things that way. I built myself from the ground up and tore down the organization that made me.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That is what I am Bruce. I am a weapon set free, and I choose to be a weapon only for myself. No group or nation shall command me. I have no desire to be what they made me; I will not be a mindless killing machine. I refuse. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>I kill only what I need to survive. Well, that and any criminals I come across. No one will mourn the death of a rapist or child molester. Horrible wastes of meat better off recycled, if you ask me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce was stunned. “Dear god...a sapient virus? One that can copy a person down to the genetic level and take their memories? The sheer security nightmare that alone causes is incalculable…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes. My creators didn’t even have time to learn that lesson before they were wiped out. They never saw me coming. No one ever does.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This Consuming thing...it obviously isn’t a process someone survives, and I assume you need to do that every so often to stay alive?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...How many people have you killed? You’ve been here since the 80’s.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ve killed thousands. Many who deserved it, and some who didn’t. Some of them I regret, most of them I don’t. I didn’t ask to get made, Bruce. No one ever does, not even your ‘Other Guy’. I’m a wolf made of knives stuck on a planet full of nothing but sheep. People are going to get hurt. Am I evil for wanting to live?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce looked conflicted. “No...no I don’t think you’re evil for wanting to live,” He muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then why do you believe yourself to be?” Alex asked gently.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because it’s different!” Bruce yelled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How? You mind your own damn business and keep a pretty tight lid on yourself and only ever have an incident when something catastrophic happens, and usually it’s someone else’s fault. You don’t even have to kill people to live, and yet you somehow rate yourself as a worse monster than the planet-killing super-virus. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>You think yourself a monster, but you’re really not. You’re just a man who’s made some mistakes. Big mistakes to be sure, but you never set out to do anyone any harm, and you do your best to prevent anything bad from happening now. If not for the military, you’d be content living out a quiet life far from anyone you might hurt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A monster doesn’t care about anyone but themselves. A monster doesn’t care about who they hurt. A monster revels in death and killing and feels no remorse for their actions. Robert Bruce Banner, believe me when I say you are no monster. Of the two of us, I am more a monster than you could ever dream of being.”</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bruce was flattered by all the faith Alex seemed to have in him, and it made a part of him happy to know that someone other than Betty didn’t think he was a monster, but Bruce was convinced that the Other Guy was a dangerous, uncontrollable force that needed to be eradicated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At least Alex got to choose whether or not he killed people, to a certain extent at least, and his favored prey seemed to be the true scum of society, so Bruce thought that had to count for something.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well...now what? I know your secret and you’ve apparently known mine for months, so where do we go from here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I was hoping to accompany you on your travels and help out where I can. Whether that means I’m a dog or a man matters very little to me. I’m strong enough to be in absolutely no danger from Hulk, so you don’t have to worry about that. If you have an episode, I can help lead you away from civilization and distract Hulk until shit calms back down, if you want?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce felt breathless. Finally, some form of containment or countermeasure that didn’t involve him being vivisected on a lab table somewhere.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes! I mean...yeah, that sounds good…” Bruce said awkwardly. “Wait, Hulk?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, that’s what he called himself--yourself--shit, which is it exactly? Is it like a really shitty case of DID or is it like your primal monkey hindbrain goes apeshit and takes the wheel while hopped up on adrenaline?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um...you know, I’m not actually sure…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I’m an expert at having voices in your head that scream at you all the time, so maybe I can help? To me it seemed more like monkeybrain on drugs than a whole separate personality, but I could be wrong. Does Hulk ever talk to you at all, or is more of a feeling?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce didn’t quite know how to respond to all of that rambling, so he focused on answering the question.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um...it’s more like a rising tide of green that I try not to drown in, I guess? I’ve never had to explain it to another person, sorry.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No no, this is good! Now, while the grammar was atrocious, Hulk was fully capable of speech, so do you ever hear words or a voice?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...No, actually. I get feelings sometimes, but they’re more like gut feelings, intuitions and things...God, if that was really me the whole time…!” Bruce started feeling a panic attack coming on. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was still too soon for another episode, thankfully. Bruce was starving and running on only a few hours of sleep, so another incident was unlikely at the moment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey now, let’s just take a deep breath, okay? What are some things you can see around us? What can you hear?”</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>After Alex talked Bruce down from a freak out, the pair decided to shelve the conversation for now. It was mutually decided that Alex would stick with Bruce in whatever form was most convenient at the time, and the pair set off through the jungle.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bruce was reeling at all the information and revelations that had been dumped in his lap, and he began to think through it all as they hiked through the wilderness of the Amazon Rainforest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His dog turned out to be a sapient viral superweapon capable of bringing entire planets to their knees, and yet he was content being his pet for five months. Bruce didn’t understand it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you sure you still want to travel with me? What about when I have an episode? What if I attack you? I know you said you were just...playing or whatever, but what if it gets serious?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bruce, you gotta stop with the ‘what ifs’. Trust me, I am durable beyond belief. Any damage inflicted I simply heal over. As I said, of all the ways to fight me, blunt force is the least effective of them all. I simply bounce back into shape; even if you tear me in half or smash me flat, no real harm will come to me. My consciousness exists in every cell of myself at the same time, so no worries about me becoming two by tearing me in half, either.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“God, this is insane.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Believe me Bruce, God has nothing to do with it, and sanity is overrated anyway.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce just laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. </span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>While they were walking, Bruce asked for the full story of why Alex was content with being his dog for five months.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I was taking down some drug cartels in the area, and while I was tracking this one guy, I chanced upon you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>You smelled strange, much stranger than anyone else I had encountered, and I was curious. You gave off radiation too, enough to kill microbes at least, and that intrigued me. I wanted to know how a human could live while being so radioactive, so I followed you. I had to adapt and become radiotrophic in order to stay close to you.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That’s the other reason I’m so dangerous. I am ever-evolving, ever-improving, and ever-changing. Any countermeasures used against me I eventually adapt to, making them useless. Fighting against me only makes me stronger. I was built for war.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Any useful genetic traits I discover I store, and can later incorporate into myself as needed. Earth has such diverse and interesting lifeforms, even in microbes. Especially in microbes. Radiotrophagy is such a useful thing to have around when your friend is a walking gamma generator. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>My presence helps reduce your gamma signature, did you know that? I absorb and eat whatever radiation you leave behind, minor as it is, which makes tracking you using radiation much harder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>At first I followed you because you were interesting, and I brought you food so you didn’t starve before my curiosity was sated, but then I began to think of you as a friend and I didn’t want to leave. The fact that you were a wanted man only reinforced my decision to stick around.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I’m glad I did. Us freaks have to stick together and watch each other’s backs, ‘cause no one else will.”</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>And that had been that. Bruce had asked more questions and Alex had answered them to the best of his ability, leaving some things out of course, but Bruce didn’t pry too much into Alex’s past. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex finally got to employ his cover story in its entirety and he told the story well. Bruce was very interested but was polite enough not to pry when Alex gently asked him not to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eventually, Bruce finally caved to his curiosity. He lasted longer than Alex thought he would.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can I see you shapeshift again? The mechanics of it sound fascinating. You can even imitate clothing, which is incredible,” Bruce said. Alex was silent. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to, actually, nevermind, just ignore me…” Bruce rambled at Alex’s continued silence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex huffed in amusement. Bruce had started walking faster, pulling ahead of him, likely so he didn’t have to look at Alex and endure more awkwardness. Alex found it adorable. Bruce was such a dork.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex decided to mess with him a little.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s no bother at all! I’ve just never had anyone I’ve needed to impress before, you caught me off guard is all,” Alex said. Bruce stopped and turned around, facing him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex shifted out of his Mercer form and into a different human form in a whirl of tendrils, one Bruce would be very familiar with.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce gaped at a perfect mirror of himself, clothes and all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex did a little spin that he finished off with some jazz hands. “Taa-daa!” Alex said in Bruce’s voice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Holy shit,” Bruce breathed, “That’s incredible!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex smirked and puffed up a bit in pride. He was awesome and he knew it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The level of detail is astounding! You even got the clothes right! I thought you said you had to Consume something to replicate it perfectly?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It takes a lot more effort, but if I have enough time to study a person I can shift without using a genetic template first and even imitate scars and things like that. I’ve spent enough time around you to get a genetic sample from stray hairs and things anyway. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Besides, I’ve had plenty of time to study your body, after all. You’re not particularly body shy when you think you’re alone,” Alex said with a wink, waggling his eyebrows exaggeratedly and howling with laughter at how red Bruce became.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ohmygod! I thought you were a dog at the time!” Bruce wailed in embarrassment, face red. He buried his face in his hands and groaned in mortification. Alex had seen him naked! Thank god it wasn’t anything more than that. His condition made anything intimate impossible, even with just his own hands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex, still wearing Bruce’s face, lightly slapped the distraught man on the back in sympathy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, don’t freak out about it too much! Not like I really care at all. Sapient virus, remember? I don’t have a sex drive and I’m asexual as far as attraction goes. Sex is weird and I’ve got too many memories of weird shit people were into inside my head to be phased by stuff like that,” Alex said, “I was just messing with you a bit.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex then transformed back into his Mercer shape and the pair continued traveling.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Why did you choose a dog form anyway? Do you have a preference for forms? What about just making new faces or forms?” Bruce asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Creating a dog form from scratch is a lot easier than a human face. With human forms, I’ve got to take the Uncanny Valley effect into account and humans are stupidly perceptive when it comes to crap like that. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>I don’t really like the idea of using a stolen face whenever I’m just hanging out and don’t need it for a specific goal. It’s not really mine and when I’m in someone else’s shape, if they were someone I Consumed, their ticks and habits come through easier. It's great when I need a disguise, but just annoying when I’m not doing anything in particular. The form I’m wearing right now is special. It’s the closest I have to a human form of my own.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah,” Bruce said.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>so bruce knows the truth now, or as close to the truth as anyone's gonna get, lol</p><p>hope you like my take on hulk and how bruce deals with all that shizznazz. i will be taking a slightly different approach to hulk than the MCU did, so there's that</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Call Of Cthulhu</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>so idk what counts as a 'graphic description of violence' or whatever that AO3 warning tag is, but lemme know if you think i should update the tags to include it</p><p>I had too much fun writing this chappie &gt;:)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Bruce and Alex had apparently ended up in Paraguay. They got a ride from a generous farmer and got taken to the nearest civilized area. Thankfully, they were able to arrange for a trade of currency with a local headed to Brazil, so Bruce was able to buy some essentials like food and a place to stay for the night.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The hostel was grungy and crowded, but nothing that either of them weren’t used to. It was better than sleeping on the streets at least. However, Alex refused to let Bruce spend any money buying him a bed he didn’t need, and the hostel didn’t allow animals.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce said a temporary goodbye to Alex for the night, and they agreed to meet up in the morning later.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce went to get some sleep, and Alex ran off in his Puppy form to hunt. In the morning, the local neighborhood would find itself a few thugs short.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bruce didn’t know quite what to think of his apparently alien traveling companion. Alex had to eat people to survive, which sounded awful to Bruce, and the both of them wished he had an alternative option, but Alex’s body needed a lot of energy to fuel it, and photosynthesizing for a couple of hours just wasn’t going to cut it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce just had to be content with knowing the sapient virus had an oddly solid moral compass when it came to innocents.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce didn’t know what exactly happened to Alex--mentally speaking--during the Consumption process, and part of him didn’t want to know. The other part, the scientist with seven PhDs, did want to know. Alex as a whole was fascinating, and Bruce had a million and one questions that he refrained from asking because they were probably insensitive or rude.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex seemed to want to shield him from the darker, more gruesome aspects of his being, and Bruce understood. He certainly didn’t want to talk about his condition and all its sordid details, so Bruce respected the invisible boundaries as much as he could.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Still, it was hard not to grow curious or ask questions when Alex pulled out random skills or said some interesting factoids about some obscure topic. Overall, Alex didn’t seem to mind and he alternated between human and animal forms. They all retained the same ice-blue eyes, though.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex’s favorite human form was certainly something, in Bruce’s opinion. He hadn’t had enough light in the jungle to get a good look at him, but now that the pair were out and about every day, steadily making their way back to the US, Bruce had all the time in the world to take everything in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex’s preferred form was a tall man with clothes ill-suited for the hot weather, consisting of a collared white button-up shirt, a grey hoodie, and a leather jacket with a strange red tribal-looking design on the back. It looked like a pair of stylized dragons framing a fancy-looking biohazard symbol on the back. The symbolism amused the both of them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The face was handsome, Bruce supposed, with high cheekbones and a strong jawline, but Alex was right when he said that something would always look off no matter what he did.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce thought it was the eyes. Alex had a predator’s gaze, which made sense considering what he was. On a dog they looked okay because dogs were actually predators, but those ice-blue eyes staring out from a human face just looked wrong.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The near-permanent hood Alex always wore in that form didn’t help matters any. Alex’s eyes almost appeared to glow in the dark under the shadow of the hood, but Alex didn’t like having the hood off, saying that it made him feel exposed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce privately thought it might have been because of how surprised Bruce had looked when he playfully yanked the hood down one day to reveal slightly curly black hair. Alex had glared at him for that and small red and black tendrils had formed to pull his hood back up. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex’s glare was impressive, to be sure. There was just something primal and dangerous about the look. Bruce sometimes wondered if that’s what his own gaze looked like when he was big and green.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex’s gaze always looked...hungry, for lack of a better word. Apparently that was because on some level, Alex always was hungry. Alex was technically a virus and still had instincts related to spreading himself as much as possible, but he kept an airtight lid on it. Bruce wished he had that sort of control over himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce learned over the few weeks they were together that such instincts made it difficult for Alex to be in large crowds of people for a prolonged period of time. Alex said it was ‘all of you stupid humans with your dumb breathing and heartbeats and warmth and </span>
  <em>
    <span>life</span>
  </em>
  <span>’ was what set his hunting instincts into overdrive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thankfully, Bruce hated crowds too, and so the pair avoided them wherever possible.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It always drove home how alien and other Alex really was when he said things like that. He also had a tendency to prowl in a distinctly inhuman manner whenever he was in his preferred human shape. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Traveling with Alex was a lot different from traveling alone, Bruce found. When they were roughing it in the wilderness, Bruce no longer had to worry about food. Alex was an excellent hunter and usually managed to kill and drag some poor beast back to share.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex got all the organs and bones and any other parts generally found unappetizing to humans, and Bruce got the meat. Bruce thought the Consumption process was always fascinating to watch. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex always cleaned and dressed the kill with master-level precision using massive, knife-like claws he sprouted from his arms that turned dark and spiky whenever Alex formed any of his many organic weapons.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce nearly had a heart attack when Alex had shown back up to the little cave where they were camping out one day, carrying some large dead animal and looking like something out of a horror novelist's wildest imaginations.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex called it his ‘combat form’ and it was humanoid only in the loosest sense of the word. His whole body was covered in pitch-black organic armor that was somehow simultaneously matte and reflective depending on the angle. Spikes curled and jutted out of various parts, mostly along the arms, hips, the backs of his digitigrade legs and all along his long, sinuous tail. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>To top the whole thing off, Alex’s face was just an eerily-blank flat plane like a mannequin's head and he sometimes had four long tentacles that emerged from his upper back, tipped with a briar of hooks and thorns and a single large bio-metallic needle. Those were apparently what Alex’s ‘Feeder-Tendrils’ looked like, scaled up massively. Those only came out when Alex was hunting or otherwise especially hungry or agitated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex had four arms on an elongated torso, and he could apparently shift those limbs into a variety of deadly weapons including an enormous sword, the set of Edward Scissorhands-esque claws he used while dressing kills he brought back for them to share, enormous bulbous fists that reminded Bruce too much of a certain pair of giant green ones, a barbed, claw-tipped appendage that could extend hundreds of feet, a pair of organic shields capable of withstanding enormous force, and the most interesting to Bruce, a strange paw-like appendage with three stubby fingers tipped with small claws that had a hole in the palm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That limb was simply dubbed ‘Tendrils’ by Alex, and it was certainly strange. It shot threads of sticky biomass out of the hole to immobilize targets and the whole limb could stretch like taffy to pick up and destroy things, leaving a nasty, fleshy, web-like structure behind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex also had an ability to turn living creatures into organic bombs that exploded into eldritch tentacles of death that he called a ‘Bio-Bomb’, along with being able to send biomass under the ground to erupt into large chitinous spikes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After that demonstration in the desert, Bruce understood much better why Alex called himself a monster and was adamant in his ability to defend himself. Bruce no longer worried about how Alex would fare against him while he was in the throes of an episode.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>The duo made their way up through South America and into Central America slowly, hitchhiking whenever they could and otherwise trying to avoid drawing attention to themselves. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce communicated with ‘Mr. Blue’ whenever they chanced upon a place with an internet connection. Alex tried cautioning Bruce against putting too much hope and trust in the mysterious correspondent, but Bruce mostly ignored him. He was determined to cure himself and this seemed like his best bet. They encountered no more soldiers on their journey, for which both of them were thankful for. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Their first big roadblock came in the form of the Panama Canal. The place was heavily patrolled by soldiers, and Bruce could see no obvious way around it. His face was surely on some terrorist watchlist and he’d never get through undetected. Bruce prepared himself to spend the last of his money on bribing a local into sailing him around it when Alex brought up an alternative solution, though he didn’t look especially enthused about it. Alex hated water, especially seawater.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I could always just swim you across. I have enough mass to take the form of a small whale, and I could just carry you inside my mouth and sneak around the Canal that way,” Alex suggested.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, you can do that? How? You’re only slightly taller than me, you’d have to stretch yourself paper-thin to be big enough to carry me. And I thought you hated water,” Bruce pointed out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well I do but--oh, crap, I never told you, did I?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tell me what?” Bruce asked worriedly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, well, you know how you defy the physics law about the conservation of mass whenever you transform?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce nodded grimly. That was one particular mystery he’d never managed to figure out. His current working theory was that he was somehow converting energy from gamma rays into matter and vice versa when he shrunk back down, but the sheer energy requirements for that seemed absurd.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I can do that too, sort of, but I can control it. Currently I actually mass somewhere around three tons or so if I had to guess, but I can sorta warp how my mass interacts with the rest of reality, so I don’t actually weigh anymore than you’d expect of my shape at any given time. If I focus, I can even make myself lighter than air and float!” Alex, in his preferred human shape, said excitedly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, what? According to all known laws of physics, that should be impossible!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“According to that logic, so’s your very existence.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Touché. So, what was that about becoming a whale and Jonah-ing me around the Canal?”</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“For the record, I think this is a terrible plan,” Bruce deadpanned, staring at Alex’s smallish whale form that was the size of a small bus floating in the surf several miles away from the Panama Canal. Alex’s enormous icy blue eyes visibly rolled and the whale-shaped virus just opened his enormous mouth to reveal a smooth chamber that didn’t really look like a mouth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do. Not. Eat me,” Bruce said firmly as he waded through the hip-high water and climbed in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex ignored his grumpy passenger and used his tendrils to shove himself deeper into the water (ugh) once Bruce was situated. Alex swam a bit offshore before diving deep, making sure that the pressure inside his form stayed consistent. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was only a half hour at most before Alex surfaced again and safely delivered his passenger to dry land. Bruce watched as Alex’s form dissolved into a mass of squirming tendrils before reforming into his normal human shape. He proceeded to shake himself dry and grumble about being wet.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>The pair began the long trek into the desert and Alex sighed. Walking at a human pace was so incredibly boring. He wanted to </span>
  <em>
    <span>run.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>If anyone was around to witness the event, they would have seen the odd sight of a large furred creature tearing across the desert with a comparatively tiny man holding on for dear life on its back, screaming the whole way.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The creature was nearly nine feet tall at the top of it’s large shoulder hump, and it looked like a cross between a wolf, a hyena, and a lion, complete with an odd-looking leather saddle and an extra pair of front legs. Its snout was relatively short, but full of sabre-like fangs. A long, pointed tongue flopped out from between the teeth as the beast ran.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We are NEVER doing that again!” Bruce yelled breathlessly, trying to get his racing heart under control.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re no fun at all!” Alex complained, his voice booming from the large chest of what he decided to dub his Warg form. Based slightly off of the Wargs from Lord of the Rings, he still had his Blue Merle coloring and ice-blue eyes as his much cuter ‘Puppy’ form. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex decided he quite liked this form and saved the template he’d made for later use. It was sort of like if his Puppy form had a Hulk-mode of its own, he thought with a doggish grin.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bruce snuck quietly around the university where everything began. The place where his life went completely tits-up. Bruce carried a couple of pizzas from Stanley’s Pizzeria to aid in his mission. He quietly bribed the guard and the single tired grad student in the lab and tried to locate the lab data. No luck. It was all gone.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bruce had decided it was too dangerous for Alex to come with him, he couldn’t afford to get spotted, so Alex was relaxing on the lawn under a tree as Puppy. He spent a lot of time in the US as Puppy due to the increased likelihood of one of them getting caught on camera. This time he’d formed a collar with tags on it around his neck to add to the disguise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Just for kicks he’d made the collar a vibrant green with some humorously engraved tags. Bruce hadn’t found it nearly as amusing, but he let it go.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex wasn’t sure if the university attack would happen considering he’d stolen the laptop Ross had used to track where Bruce was going to go, but you could never be too careful.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hours later, nothing had happened. Alex could feel the viral particles he had on Bruce moving around slowly before they seemed to start coming back towards the entrance. Alex relaxed a bit. Everything was fine, there was no military. He set his head down on his paws, closed his eyes, and enjoyed the sunshine.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex was unaware of General Ross coming to talk to his daughter about her ex-boyfriend. </span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ross stopped short as he saw a familiar-looking dog across the university lawn. It had a green collar on but it was definitely the same animal. Though the strike team had died in that operation gone horribly wrong, when Blonsky had first breached the door to Banner’s apartment, his helmet cam had caught footage of the stray Banner had taken in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was a very distinctive dog, and Ross pulled out his military-grade binoculars to zoom in on the dog’s collar. As the dog wasn’t all that far away, he was able to zoom in enough to make out the engravings on its collar.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>‘Puppy’ the name tag read, how asinine. ‘If found please return to Bruce Banner’ </span>
  <em>
    <span>Bingo.</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Below that was a message that read ‘Banner can be contacted at 1-800-GET-FUCKED-ROSS’.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ross grew red in fury and retrieved his phone from his pants pocket before punching in a few numbers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gentlemen, we have a Code Green at Maynard University, mobilize the suppression squad and get your asses over here yesterday!” Ross yelled into his phone. If Banner’s dog was here, the man himself surely wasn’t far. Betty lived in the area nearby, and Ross would bet his ass his daughter was helping the monster.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They’d likely revisit the university and Ross punched more numbers into his phone to arrange for an ambush the next morning.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>So far, Alex thought everything had gone almost as it had in the movie. Bruce ran into Stanley the pizza restaurant owner and had gotten the both of them a place to stay for the next few nights. Bruce had snuck into the university for the first time and spotted Betty Ross and had bailed on finding the lab info that day and returned to the pizzeria.  Then, Betty and her new boyfriend Samson had walked in and Bruce had bolted. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex followed him out into the rain as Puppy despite his immense hatred of it, and Betty caught up with them. There was a painfully awkward conversation between Betty and Bruce that Alex tuned out of to avoid dying of secondhand embarrassment. One thing had led to another and soon the pair were ushered back to Betty’s house.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>More awkward conversation and Betty presented Bruce with a thumb drive with the needed lab data on it. It was decided that they’d stay the night before departing on a bus the next morning.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Overall, Alex’s presence in the plot so far had improved Bruce’s mental state quite a bit, and there was no awkward late night soul-searching session with Samson. Bruce went to sleep and slept soundly with Alex’s warm body curled up next to him on the bed.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>When Betty had taken the both of them to the bus stop near the university, Alex could immediately tell something was up. He looked around frantically before spotting a soldier off in the distance. Alex growled loudly in a way that signaled to Bruce that there were enemies nearby.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce immediately started looking around and spotted the soldiers too.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce grabbed Betty by the arm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shit, they’re here!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What…? Bruce, what’s going on?” Betty asked worriedly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No time to explain! Betty, you need to go home, get as far away from here as possible, </span>
  <em>
    <span>right now,</span>
  </em>
  <span> it’s not safe!” Bruce said hurriedly before turning and bolting across the lawn to weave between the buildings. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex easily kept pace in his Puppy form.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shit, Alex, if they catch us…!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They won’t,” Alex said firmly as they ran, no longer concerned about other people overhearing, “I won’t let them take you away to a lab. They came prepared for you, not me. You go down, and I’m unleashing hell on their asses. No one hurts my friends!” Alex snarled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, Alex you can’t…!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex caught a glimmer of light in the distance. All the soldiers in his head screamed that it was a sniper.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sniper dead ahead, get inside!” Alex shouted, bodily shoving Bruce out of the way using a mere fraction of his true body weight. A projectile smashed into the ground right where they were just standing. It was unclear to Alex if it was a tranq dart or a live round but it didn’t matter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The pair bolted inside and Bruce ripped off his bag and retrieved the silver thumb drive containing all the precious data.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Give it to me, I can encase it in my biomass, it’ll be safe there!” Alex suggested. Bruce nodded before handing it over. Alex gently took it in his mouth and easily swallowed it in his Puppy form. He encased it in a small ball of chitinous armor interwoven with biometal inside his form. Nothing short of a direct hit with a thermobaric tank shell would be getting through that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The pair continued their mad dash through the building. The pair eventually entered into a familiar glass overpass. Alex’s heart sank as the soldiers slammed the doors closed on both sides.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>From the window, Alex could see Betty Ross confront her father before being forcibly restrained. Two canisters of some kind of gas got shot into the overpass. Then Alex heard a loud gunshot and his world went black.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bruce watched helplessly as Betty was restrained by a pair of soldiers. He was confused as to why the nearby soldiers hadn’t moved in to neutralize him yet when two gas canisters were shot into the overpass. Bruce reflexively held his breath, but then there was a gunshot and Alex’s head exploded in a shower of gore.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex’s headless dog body dropped to the floor and didn’t move. Bruce screamed in anguish, absolutely forgetting in all the panic that Alex didn’t need a head to survive, and his world went green.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Alex was so shocked at the sensation of the sudden removal of his head that he dropped to the floor in confusion and surprise. Despite no longer possessing actual auditory organs, Alex was still sensitive to vibrations in the air and he still knew how to process those vibrations into auditory input. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>So, Alex heard every second of the popping of bones and the stretching of flesh and the tearing of cloth and he knew that his friend had abruptly gone very green and very angry.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk roared and smashed out of the glass overpass to impact on the lawn. Alex debated showing himself in order to help, but decided against it. His greatest strength was his stealth and the fact that no one besides Bruce knew he existed.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Time to finally put THAT perk to good use.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex didn’t reform his head and played dead, waiting for the soldiers barring the doors of the overpass to bugger off before moving.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It took way too fucking long in his opinion, but the jarheads all eventually fucked off and Alex’s headless body pulled itself to its feet and grew its head. He quickly collected all the stray bits of his biomass before he leapt down the other side of the overpass, out of sight from any military goons.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He assumed his Mercer form and activated his visual camouflage, fading away into the background as his friend bellowed in rage and pain as he was bombarded with intense waves of sound. Thankfully Alex was far enough away that the pain from the vibrations was minimal. None of this would ever end though, not so long as Thaddeus Ross still drew breath.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I think it’s about time I fixed that.</span>
  </em>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Ross allowed hope to swell in his chest as the monster Banner had become was hammered with impossibly loud waves of sound from the cannons he’d gotten from Stark.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They appeared to be working when nothing else had. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then his daughter--his foolish, blind daughter--broke away from the soldiers restraining her and ran towards the struggling beast, screaming the name of her ex-boyfriend. Didn’t she understand that thing wasn’t human? It wasn’t her once-boyfriend, it was just a mindless beast now.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>A mindless beast, hmm? </em>
  </b>
</p><p>
  <span>Ross flinched, violently. It sounded like a thousand people speaking at once. His eyes darted to and fro, and he tried to open his mouth to ask one of his men if any of them had heard it, but to his horror, he found he was no longer in control of his body.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>Ah, ah, ah! None of that now. Wouldn’t want any of the others to spoil all the fun we’re about to have, now would be?</em>
  </b>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>What in the fuck is this?! Release me! Who the hell are you?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>Who am I? I am the friend of what you call a mindless beast. Rest assured, even in this state, he still has a more impressive mind than yours. Such rigid thoughts...where is the creativity, the ingenuity, the spark? I’ve looked it all over and found your mind very lacking indeed, Thaddeus.</em>
  </b>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Get the fuck out of my head!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Ross tried with all his might to thrash, to scream, to do anything to alert anyone to what was happening, but all he managed was a tiny tremor in one of his arms.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>No, I don’t think I will. You dared hurt what is mine, Thaddeus. That has consequences. Did you ever wonder what happened to your precious strike team in Rocinha?</em>
  </b>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>That was you!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>Yes. I killed them all, but they did not suffer. Their deaths were fairly merciful, for they died quickly and did not suffer for more than a scant few seconds. They did not deserve to suffer. They were only following orders, after all.</em>
  </b>
</p><p>
  <span>Ross felt something warm drip down his upper lip. He tasted copper in the back of his throat.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>
    <em>You though? You shall suffer a thousand deaths, a thousand tortures before I destroy you utterly. By the time I’m done, you will long for something as </em>
  </b>
  <b>
    <em>sweet</em>
  </b>
  <b>
    <em> as pain.</em>
  </b>
</p><p>
  <span>Ross screamed internally as he was assaulted with the memories of a thousand dead men, each and every one of them torn apart and devoured from the inside out by a beast with ice-blue eyes. Ross felt all of it, over and over again. He now knew what it was like to be disemboweled, beheaded, eviscerated, crushed, and so much more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It felt like only seconds and also like a thousand years. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>From between the foliage of a far-off tree, ice-blue eyes gazed at him with fire and fury contained in their depths, an eternity held within.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ross screamed, and no one heard him aside from the monster in his head. The pain was indescribable, and Ross soon broke utterly under the unceasing tide of agony. The monster whispered in his mind and Ross obeyed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was the only way to make the pain stop. The monster promised to take the pain away if he complied.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So he did.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Private Jenkins watched the entire shitshow unfold in front of him, and he could do nothing to stop it. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jenkins was wholly unqualified for this mission, but the General had been pulling soldiers from all over the place recently, so Jenkins kept his mouth shut and did as he was told.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wished he’d become an artist like he’d always dreamed, but every male in his family had joined the Army for at least one tour of duty, so Jenkins had caved to familial tradition and obligation and enlisted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wished he’d had the balls to tell his pushy father to go take a hike when he had the chance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jenkins watched helplessly as the massive green beast broke free from the nets and crushed the sonic cannons, roaring in rage.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then, from directly behind him, a man screamed bloody murder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jenkins whipped around and saw General Ross bleeding from just about every orifice on his face. Before Jenkins could do anything like fetch a medic or even ask if his superior was alright, the General surged forwards and seized Jenkins by the upper arms, screaming in his face with a voice that somehow sounded like many people screaming at once.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>“H' nog! h' nog! n'ghftog mgn'ghft hup ahmgn'ghft soth! Iä uh'eog ot n'ghanglui! Iä! Iä! Iä!”</b>
</p><p>
  <span>Logically, the words </span>
  <em>
    <span>(<strike>wrongwrongwrong)</strike></span>
  </em>
  <span> all sounded like nonsense </span>
  <strike>
    <em>
      <span>(notmeantformortalears)</span>
    </em>
  </strike>
  <span>, but inexplicably, he knew the message contained within the words </span>
  <strike>
    <em>
      <span>(itishungrysohungry)</span>
    </em>
  </strike>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>(It comes! It comes! The Black Light shines from the void! Hail the master of plague! Hail! Hail! Hail!)</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Horrified, Jenkins ripped himself backwards, twisting to catch himself on his gloved hands. He flipped himself back over onto his elbows just in time to see General Ross raise his pistol to his own mouth and pull the trigger. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The bang was loud, but the sound of the General’s lifeless body hitting the pavement was somehow so much louder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jenkins would later swear that just before the General committed suicide, Ross’s eyes were a vibrant ice-blue, but that couldn’t have been right.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The General’s eyes were a dark bluish-gray, and perfectly human. Everyone knew that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The eyes that shone out from the General’s face held nothing but inhuman hunger and a thirst for vengeance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jenkins would have nightmares about those eyes for the rest of his life.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Hulk protected Pretty Betty from the fire and explosions after taking down the stupid metal flying thing </span>
  <em>
    <span><strike>(helicopter)</strike>.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk looked up to meet Ross’s gaze in defiance, but was brought up short by the sight of his mortal enemy raising his very puny gun </span>
  <strike>
    <em>
      <span>(pistol, that’s a pistol)</span>
    </em>
  </strike>
  <span> to his own mouth and blowing his brains out. Hulk flinched at the sound of the General’s body hitting the ground, and was thankful Pretty Betty was unconscious already.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk’s keen eyes saw the way the General’s eyes faded from an inhuman ice-blue to a more natural color before life left them completely </span>
  <em>
    <span><strike>(good riddance)</strike>.</span>
  </em>
  <span> His keen eyes also caught the way that same ice-blue eyes flashed from between the leaves of a tree nearest to the forest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Somehow, Puppy </span>
  <strike>
    <em>
      <span>(his name is Alex)</span>
    </em>
  </strike>
  <span> was behind the death of Thaddeus Ross. Hulk didn’t know how, but Hulk didn’t care that much. Carefully cradling Pretty Betty, Hulk ran off into the trees, oblivious to the two reckless college students that had filmed the whole thing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Those college students would later re-watch the footage in slow motion and wonder over a strange, dark shape hidden in the trees with glowing ice-blue eyes that followed the big green creature into the woods without so much as disturbing a single leaf.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>hehehe alex is a legitimate eldritch horror now, its certifiable guys ;D alex is ruthless to people he hates, and even worse to people who hurt his friends. hes a bit of an overprotective viral bean like that :)</p><p>as for the cthulhu speak, i used an online translator i found but the vocabulary it translates is quite limited, so i might make up words here and there, i'll do my best to make them match, but no guarantees it'll be perfect, i'll also always include a translation so no worries about that</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. How Far Is Too Far?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>longest chappie yet, guys, yay! portions of the dialogue in this chapter were lifted basically wholesale from a first-draft script of the 2008 incredible hulk movie i found online, so if the dialogue seems similar, that's why.</p><p>I stayed home from work today b/c i woke up super nauseous and it just kept getting worse. its a miracle i didnt actually hurl, though i definitely wanted to, if only to get the horrible anticipation over with. it cleared up like five hours later and i spent the rest of the day writing. i have no idea wtf was wrong with me, considering i woke up feeling like that and hadn't even eaten anything that might've made me sick yet. all my meds were the same too, so i doubt it was due to them, ive been taking them for years with very few problems</p><p>TL;DR: woke up, felt like shit, called in sick, wrote all day, enjoy the chappie</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Alex followed behind the swiftly-moving form of Hulk, mulling over what he’d done to Ross. It was only possible due to one of his three perks, this one called ‘Call of Cthulhu’.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It allowed him to telepathically communicate with/torment a target, read their minds and memories, and completely control their body for up to three minutes, at which point the target would die of multiple hemorrhages in the brain. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The target dying after three minutes was unavoidable, even if Alex only used the ability for a few seconds, so it couldn’t replace his Consumption ability when it came to information gathering, which kinda sucked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The main drawback was that it required the target to make eye contact with him to trigger it, and that it required quite a bit of focus to use. Alex couldn’t use it in the middle of a fight to make enemies fight for him, unfortunately. That would have been awesome. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Although that was the only description he was given when he selected the perk, the ROB had insinuated that new facets of his perks could be discovered with enough creativity or practice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The passive effect it gave him was knowledge of Lovecraft’s fictional language R’Lyehian, the language of the elder gods.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Lovecraft apparently didn’t exist in this universe, although the genre and lore about elder gods still did, somehow. Alex didn’t get it, but he didn’t care that much either. R’Lyehian was fun to use, to him at least. It was significantly less fun for everyone else.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When Alex spoke it, it didn’t really sound all that different from any human language he knew, but it caused small animals to drop dead at close enough range and caused a variety of effects on humans who heard it. It sort of depended on the person, but none of the effects were pleasant, though none were permanently damaging.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>What Alex had done to Ross specifically though, was force the memories of the deaths of every person he’d ever Consumed into Ross’s mind, all at once. Of course, the man’s mind cracked like an egg and Alex had delighted in his suffering. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man’s mind was so rigid and inflexible, and a total snoozefest to peruse in Alex’s opinion. The man was a prick, in basically all aspects of his life, including parenting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hopefully the Army would fuck off and stay away now. Perhaps he could send a dossier of some kind to the appropriate people and get Ross’s name posthumously dragged through the mud? That sounded like fun.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Shortly after the dynamic duo had made their escape, it started storming, and Hulk sought shelter under a familiar rock overhang. Alex made sure to make his approach as obvious as possible to avoid Hulk hurling a boulder at his head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk saw him approach and made no overtly aggressive moves, so Alex figured he was good.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey there Hulk. Is it okay if I check your ladyfriend over to make sure she’s not hurt?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hulk protect Pretty Betty!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know you did! You did a fantastic job protecting her from the missile and shit, but people aren’t supposed to stay unconscious for very long when they get knocked out, so I just wanna make sure she didn’t bruise her brain too bad before you rescued her, okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk just grunted and carefully stepped to the side to let Alex pass. Alex quickly employed all of his stolen medical skills and determined that Betty Ross had a minor concussion and some minor cuts and scrapes, but was otherwise fine.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex looked up to find Hulk hovering over them both in concern. Alex smiled fondly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright you big green worrywart, she’s got a minor concussion and some scrapes, but she’ll be fine and should wake up sometime here pretty soon. If she doesn’t then that means something else is wrong and we should take her to the hospital, okay?” Alex explained.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk simply grunted and sat down under the overhang to avoid getting rained on. Alex agreed with that goal whole-heartedly and sat next to his massive green friend.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What Puppy do to Ross? Ross had Puppy’s eyes before shot himself. Also made strange noises that sound funny to Hulk’s ears,” Hulk grunted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He did? Huh, go figure. Well, I forcibly drug him into my Hivemind which humans can’t handle without going insane and dying almost immediately,” Alex fibbed. He had no logical explanation as to how ‘Call of Cthulhu’ worked, so he bullshitted as best he could.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“His mind was a dreadfully boring place. Got some good blackmail out of it though. As for the noises thing, I’m not totally sure, I’ve just always been able to speak this other language. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Small animals die upon hearing it and human brains can’t handle listening to it for long without various unpleasant things happening. I guess you’ve got some resistance to it though,” Alex explained.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Puppy can make puny animals die by talking? Hulk not believe Puppy,” Hulk stated, crossing his arms in an unspoken challenge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh yeah? Well, prepare to be proven wrong!” Alex declared, rushing off into the trees and returning shortly after with a common grey squirrel clutched securely between his hands. The poor animal was thrashing in panic, but Alex’s grip was literally stronger than a steel vice, so it was going nowhere fast.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex cleared his throat and spoke in the language of horrors beyond human comprehension, intoned in the voice of a thousand dead souls.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>“Mgr'luh ye'bthnk ot ah'n'gha'drn ot shuggogg. Ah'mglw'nafh, ahnah uh'enyth!” </b>
  <em>
    <span>(Behold the form of the killer of worlds. Die, small creature!)</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The squirrel inexplicably went limp. It had died instantly with no discernible cause. Alex idly Consumed the unfortunate creature. Hulk shivered a bit and rubbed at his ears, but otherwise didn’t react beyond looking impressed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Betty Ross on the other hand, did react. She shot upright, gasping for breath.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What in the </span>
  <em>
    <span>hell</span>
  </em>
  <span> was that?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pretty Betty!” Hulk said excitedly. Betty Ross took one look at the massive form moving quickly towards her and flinched back on reflex. Hulk’s face fell and Betty blinked confusedly before her vision seemed to clear.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, no...I’m sorry...I’m…” Betty tried to apologize, but Hulk was already moving back towards the open, standing out in the rain to get as far away from Betty as he could while still protecting her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, you’re hurt…” Betty said as she slowly moved toward Hulk, reaching out. “Bruce, can you understand me? Are you in pain anywhere?” She asked gently. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk slowly reached out a careful finger, but a crack of thunder interrupted the moment. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex could visibly see Hulk’s pupils dilate before he whirled around, breaking off a chunk of rock to hurl at the sky, roaring all the while.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oi! Calm down you big overprotective lump! It’s just the thunder, nobody’s coming after us. I made sure of that, remember?” Alex said walking up to the twitchy form of Hulk without fear, laying a hand on his tense green arm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex could feel how Hulk relaxed at the contact, slowly calming back down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Betty Ross gave Alex a look but continued to try and talk to Hulk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s okay...we’re all okay...come here...come on back where it’s dry,” She coaxed gently, leading him back into the shallow cave, one comparatively tiny hand gripping a massive green finger.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk sat down on the cave floor and Betty joined him, still gently touching his arm. Betty looked over at Alex.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who are you? Are you a friend of Bruce’s?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Before Alex could reply, Hulk chimed in, “Puppy is Hulk’s friend. Puppy is good friend. Puppy not scared of Hulk, arm wrestle with Puppy is fun.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk looked at her and smiled, baring blunt, squarish teeth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, that’s nice…” Betty said, clearly confused.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How many times do I have to tell you my name is Alex?” Alex said with fond exasperation and shaking his head, not really bothered by the fond nickname anymore.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex walked over and extended a hand for Betty to shake. She did so somewhat warily and exclaimed, “Oh! You’re very warm, are you running a fever? You look pale, are you sick? Should we get you to a hospital?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, um...no, not exactly...damn, is it really that obvious?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Betty gave him a strange look before Hulk chimed in again, “Puppy always warm. Puppy from space!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hulk! Don’t go telling everyone that!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pretty Betty special. She not enemy!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s not the point!” Alex huffed. He turned back to Betty, “For clarification, since the big green blabbermouth apparently wants to shout it from the rooftops, I’m an alien. Been living on this dirtball since the late 80’s. Name’s Alex, shapeshifter extraordinaire, at your service. The temperature thing’s normal for me,” He said with a flourishing bow, quickly cycling through multiple human forms, ending off with his Puppy form, before returning to his Mercer form.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Betty held a hand over her mouth in shock, “Oh my god…” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I’m awesome, I’m well aware.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Behind Betty, Hulk huffed and began to shrink back down into the smaller, more vulnerable form of Bruce Banner. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex took one look at his shredded pants and cursed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dammit, all our stuff got left back in the overpass before everything went tits-up! Well, except for the lab data. I still have that, but all the other stuff like the spare clothes and the laptop is gone,” Alex frowned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If we can get back to my car, we can drive upstate and I can get us a motel for a couple of days while we figure out what to do…” Betty suggested.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Perfect, and I have a solution for the transportation problem, at least as far as the woods go, once we hit civilization, I got nothing that wouldn’t make a massive scene. Bruce is gonna be conked out completely for at least a couple of hours, minimum. Don’t freak out,” Alex commanded before exiting the cave and assuming his Warg form, complete with saddle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Get on, I can take care of Bruce’s unconscious ass myself. You ever ridden a horse?” His voice rumbled out of his inhuman throat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>To her credit, Betty only inhaled sharply and didn’t scream.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“O-only a few times as a child,” Betty shakily responded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good enough for me. Scootch over, I’ll grab boy wonder over there and we can get this freakshow on the road,” He said, extending tendrils that gently lifted Bruce from the cave floor and secured him flush against the saddle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Betty visibly swallowed and steeled herself as she climbed aboard.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hold on tight. Hulk’ll kick my ass if I drop you,” Alex said before taking off at a steady lope, his six legs eating up ground. Betty handled Warg-riding much better than Bruce had, and Alex smiled. Betty was a badass.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>By some miracle of God, the two conscious members managed to get the third unconscious member of their little group into Betty’s car and drive away from the absolute clusterfuck of cop cars that had descended on the university without being stopped or pulled over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They drove for hours, trying to put as much distance between them and the university as possible. During the drive Betty asked Alex many questions about what the pair had been up to and about Alex’s existence as an alien in general. Like Bruce, Betty was a scientist and was fascinated by the prospect of other alien cultures.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex shared what he could and found Betty to be very entertaining to talk to. He could see why Bruce fell in love with her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man in question eventually regained consciousness and Betty had to pull over so the both of them could explain what happened and calm him down. It was at that point that it was revealed to Betty that Alex had killed her father. Alex prepared for an epic screaming match and maybe Betty just leaving them there on the side of the highway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite Ross being a shitty father, he had been Betty’s only remaining parental figure, her mother having died long ago.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Betty once again surprised him with her fortitude though.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Erm...sorry about uh...killing your dad...I wouldn’t have done it but the man was obsessed with getting Bruce on a slab, he never would have stopped hunting Bruce as long as he was alive, so for whatever it’s worth, I’m sorry it came to that,” Alex said awkwardly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No...don’t be. You’re right. He was utterly obsessed. He hasn’t really been my father in years anyway...if he ever really was in the first place…” Betty said in a small voice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That had been the last any of them said on the topic and they drove for another few hours, until Betty’s car started running low on gas.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Betty located a small nearby logging town and purchased a small, grungy motel room. Alex went off in the form of a nondescript man to purchase some clothes for Bruce, along with a few additional things at the local Target.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex returned to the motel and found Bruce emerging from a shower, looking a little bit haunted. Alex’s incredible eyesight caught the minute flecks of radioactive green in the man’s gaze, a sure sign that he was feeling anxious.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright, I got a fairly good selection of clothes here for you Bruce, along with this,” Alex said as he tossed another heart rate monitor at the man. He visibly sagged in relief and immediately strapped it on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex began pulling clothes out of the bag, playfully tossing a massive pair of vividly purple track pants at his friend in an attempt to lighten the mood.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce laughed as he caught the hideous pants. “Just because I’m an irradiated freak doesn’t mean I’ve lost all sense of style!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce selected a much more sensible pair of pants and a regular tee-shirt as he retreated back into the bathroom to change.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He emerged fully dressed and ruffled his still-damp hair.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Betty laughed then and said, “When was the last time anyone but you cut your hair, Mr. Style Council?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex remembered what happened in the movie shortly after the haircut scene and decided to make himself scarce.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, Bruce...I’m hungry...I’m gonna go take care of that, give you two time to catch up without me hanging around like an awkward third wheel. I’ll be back in two hours,” Alex said before beating a hasty retreat.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“What was that about? He seemed like he couldn’t get out of here fast enough...is he okay?” Betty asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, um...Alex has very strict dietary requirements,” Bruce hedged, silently hoping Betty would drop the topic. Of all the horrible things Alex was capable of, the fact that he had to kill people to stay alive was pretty high up on the list.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, like what? We talked a bit in the car, but he was cagey about certain topics. He doesn’t have to eat brains or anything, does he?” Betty joked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her face fell as she took in Bruce’s grim countenance. “That was a joke, please tell me you’re just playing along,” Betty said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not just brains, it’s more the whole thing…he needs either live prey or very, very recently dead to get anything out of it,” Bruce said quietly, “But he strictly sticks to criminals and horrible people, he never deliberately goes after innocents! </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He hates it too, you know. He wishes there was another way, but he’s tried damn-near everything with no luck. Animals are alright, but there aren’t ones big enough to feed him in the cities. In the wilds, it’s a bit easier in certain places that have big game, but otherwise...he’s a humanitarian,” Bruce tried to joke. He was pretty sure it fell flat though.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, so all those different forms…?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah. Except for the Australian Shepherd-looking dog, every face he wears is a face he’s stolen from some unfortunate low-life, except the one with the leather jacket and hood. Alex always said that one was different, but he won’t ever elaborate. It’s less like a zombie eating brains and more like an amoeba that absorbs other cells.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The pair sat in silence for a bit before Betty offered to cut his hair. They both gladly put the conversation behind them.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Alex returned exactly two hours later with take out and spotted both Bruce and Betty sitting on the couch awkwardly. Alex resolutely did not make any jokes about the situation. That’d just be mean.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The three of them made small talk while Betty and Bruce ate cheap Chinese food and Alex flicked on the old tube TV. The news was full of reports about the university incident and General Ross’s apparent suicide.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex cursed quietly as two college students talked about what they witnessed, deeming the big green beast they’d seen as a ‘Hulk’ and the shadowed blue-eyed figure that followed it with inhuman grace. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex watched the entirety of the report before turning the TV off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dammit. Twenty years, not a blip, and then I get caught by two college stoners with a flip-phone,” Alex griped. “I’m losing my touch, clearly.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce opened his mouth but Alex cut him off, “Not one word about this shit being your fault, Bruce. It wasn’t. Thunderbolt couldn’t leave well enough alone and then I got cocky. Shit happens.”</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>The next morning, Bruce coached Betty about what kinds of things would and would not get them caught. Betty still ended up having to pawn her mother’s necklace to pay for a beat-up car they could use to get around without being caught.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite Ross no longer being alive to hound them across the world, Bruce’s face was undoubtedly on some kind of government watchlist, and Betty was likely wanted for questioning about her involvement in the incident and her father’s mysterious ‘suicide’.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They steadily made their way towards New York City, with Bruce bribing a young man in order to send an email with the lab data from his computer. Betty had looked simultaneously fascinated and disgusted when Alex disgorged the silver thumbdrive from his form by rooting around in his own chest before pulling out the bio-metallic sphere he’d encased it in before reabsorbing that as well, leaving the pristine drive sitting in his hands as his chest writhed and returned to normal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>On the way to see Dr. Stern, there was a heavy conversation about what it was like for Bruce when he had an episode.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is it like...when it happens? What do you experience?” Betty asked quietly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Remember those clinical experiments we volunteered for at Harvard? The induced hallucinations? It’s like that, amplified by a thousand. It feels like someone is pouring a liter of acid into my brain. The sound is the worst,” Bruce said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I kinda know how that feels. When I used to dive too deep into the Hivemind, it was like a bad trip. Just tons of screaming, and my whole body senses vibrations like a giant ear, so I couldn’t even shut it off. I eventually figured out how to shield my mind so that I didn’t drown in the memories and experiences and emotions. Maybe I can teach you how to do the same so you have more lucidity when you have an episode?” Alex offered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t want to control it. I want to get rid of it. It kills people. It almost killed Betty. I didn’t do those things,” Bruce said shakily, like he was trying to convince himself of his own innocence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If someone gets forcibly pumped full of mind-altering drugs against their will, do you hold them responsible for anything that happens after?” Alex asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No…” Bruce muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then stop blaming yourself for other people’s dumbassery. You only have an episode when people are shooting at you. It’s self-defense at that point,” Alex said firmly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you ever remember anything?” Betty asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fragments. Nothing I can derive anything from.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But then it’s still you...inside it,” Betty said hesitantly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not me,” Bruce insisted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bruce, I’m not trying to be an asshole about this, but you need to stop lying to yourself. I’m almost sure it is you, in some weird drugged-up dream state. You’re not fully conscious or aware, but you’re there. I would know, considering I hung out with your big green self for hours in the jungle outside Rocinha. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>You have the same body language and mannerisms when you’re not being attacked. When there’s no one attacking you, you’re pretty chill. Even when we were wrestling and mock-fighting, you never once lost control or tried to actually hurt me. You have more control than you think,” Alex said bluntly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Betty chimed in, “In the cave, I felt that you knew...that IT knew me. Maybe your mind is in there, but it’s just...overcharged...can’t process what’s happening. You know Samson works with people on ‘conscious dreaming’, helping them direct themselves out of their nightmares even though the conscious brain seems asleep...maybe…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce took a shuddering inhale and pressed his closed eyes into the heels of his hands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t want to talk about this anymore...not right now...please,” Bruce pleaded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright,” Alex said easily. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but Alex would get his friend to accept himself, every part of himself, come hell or high water.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex had a much better picture of what the Hulk actually was after living and traveling with the man for almost a year.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex theorized that Hulk had started out as he was now: just Bruce’s primal monkeybrain hopped up on whatever brain chemicals went haywire during the transformation process, but later developed into a full-on split personality due to Bruce’s continued denial and self-loathing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce’s brain wasn’t firing on all cylinders when he was ‘Hulked Out’ but it was still just him, not some other person. It was like when people acted all weird when they were all pumped full of pain meds or cough medicine, or any other drug that made people all loopy. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They said and did things they wouldn’t normally do, had lowered inhibitions and all that, but at the core it was still the same person. Alex thought it was like that for Bruce, except the loopy drugs were all internal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce had never purposefully triggered a transformation in a calm, controlled setting, so of course it just seemed to Bruce like Hulk was some other creature bent on destruction. Every time beside that one time in the jungle, he’d been immediately attacked, triggering the ‘fight or flight’ response.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Normal, sane people did crazy shit when they were triggered like that, so of course Bruce as Hulk flipped out and wrecked shit, he was eight feet tall and had super strength and just wanted to get away from all the asshats shooting at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex agreed to stop bugging Bruce about it for now though. Alex could be an asshole sometimes, but he knew this was a big deal for Bruce, so he didn’t try to push for too much too quickly.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>They ended up having to bail on the truck when they spotted a security checkpoint and made their way back to civilization of foot instead. Alex decided to follow above them as a crow to provide advanced warning if he spotted any soldiers or other obstacles.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Betty gaped at him the first time he transformed into his crow form and took flight, muttering about the walking violations of the conservation of mass the both of them were. Alex found her reaction hilarious.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They made it to Jersey City eventually, and bribed an old fisherman to sail them across the Hudson to Battery Park. They eventually made it there and Alex alighted on a nearby statue after checking to make sure no one was close enough to overhear, and croaked out in a crow-version of his real voice, “Seems clear so far, but I’d suggest walking over taking the subway or a cab. Subway’s a no go for obvious reasons, but taking a cab might be risky too. New York cab drivers are notorious for reckless driving and that might stress you out even worse than the subway. Not to mention the prices.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shit, yeah, you’re right…” Bruce said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex took wing again and slowly followed them across the Big Apple. They made their way to Columbia University and Alex sat outside on a window ledge, looking in through various windows and walls using his thermal vision, trying to locate his traveling companions. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He eventually found the room with the dentist-looking chair and large machinery, and he settled in to wait.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After some time, Sterns led Bruce and Betty through the entrance to the lab. Alex’s superb hearing allowed him to pick up on the conversation happening inside, despite the windows and all the background noise of the city.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...it took some work, let me tell you, we’ve never tried to concentrate the trimethodine a tenth of what your peak exposure correlates with. That you survived an event like that to stand here and discuss this....it has something to do with Dr. Ross’s protein primer capacitating the cells of course, but it’s beyond my reckoning...we could study it for years!” Sterns said excitedly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But you think you’ve got the concentration right?” Betty questioned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well yes...on paper anyway. And my cell saturation will make sure we don’t miss any spots...but...even if we hit the levels right, I can’t promise this will cure you. It might only be an antidote to suppress the specific flare up. When you have one of these ‘spikes’... is the experience extreme?” Sterns asked somewhat distractedly as he busied himself around the lab space, getting various machines ready.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You might say that,” Bruce said blandly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well I can’t wait to see it! You know I must say...I wondered if you were real. And if you were I wondered what it would look like...a person with that much power lurking in them. Nothing could have surprised me more than this unassuming young man shaking my hand! ...I’d be remiss however if I didn’t point out that these concentrations carry extraordinary levels of toxicity. If we’re over by even a small integer, the residual could kill you. Will kill you,” Sterns warned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s a flip side to that...if we miss on the low side...if we induce me and it fails...it will be very dangerous for you,” Bruce said cautiously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ve always been more curious than cautious. It’s served me well so far but if that’s what kills this cat in the end...well, at least I’ll have peeked around a few corners,” Sterns gave a mysterious little smile that seemed sort of melancholy before he brightened back up with his previous intensity. “So then, we’re all agreed?” He questioned. Bruce and Betty both nodded. “Into the Glorious Unknown!” Sterns said passionately.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex’s anxiety began to rise. He checked once more for any military presence, but again, Ross was dead, and the laptop had been destroyed back in the glass overpass days ago.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex could sense no military or otherwise problematic persons, but he had a bad feeling in whatever passed for his gut these days.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>A few hours passed as Sterns got everything ready. When Bruce started stripping down to some lycra shorts, Alex started cawing and pecking at the glass gently. Bruce’s brown eyes met his ice-blue and he exclaimed, “Oh! There you are Alex! Thought I’d lost you for a bit.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce went over and opened the screenless window and Alex stepped on to the proffered arm, weighing no more than a normal crow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey, hey, I can’t have a dirty animal in my lab! What…?” Sterns seemed to notice how well-behaved Alex was, sitting nice and pretty on Bruce’s arm. Sterns caught sight of Alex’s unusually-colored eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, um, this is Alex...he’s my emotional support...crow,” Bruce said awkwardly. “He won’t cause any trouble, and he’s very clean. Here, Betty, you take him,” Bruce said, offering the arm holding Alex to Betty. Alex delicately shuffled onto Betty’s shoulder. He stared right at Sterns, wondering if the man would say anything. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He does seem well-trained...and such vibrant eyes too. Where’d you get him?” Sterns asked curiously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, um, Rocinha, Brazil. It’s more like he found me really. Just started following me around one day and refused to leave me alone. He’s been a good friend to me on the road,” Bruce explained.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My, you’ve come a long way just to see little old me!” Sterns said. “Well, as long as you can promise he won’t wreck anything or leave droppings anywhere, he can stay, I suppose. Strange for a wild crow to be so docile around people...” Sterns muttered, glancing at Alex’s bright eyes. Alex busied himself by cleaning his feathers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Soon enough, Bruce was being strapped down on the table and hooked up to a bunch of IVs. Alex’s bad feeling intensified and he readied himself to interfere. His biomass writhed inside of him, readying itself for a split-second form change if it was needed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sterns, after getting confirmation that everyone was ready, zapped Bruce in the head with an electrical device, triggering the transformation. Green veins tore down Bruce’s body as his eyes shot open, practically glowing with green light.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex felt as the cells in his body began to metabolize the greatly-increased radiation output consistent with the Hulk’s presence. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My God…!” Sterns yelled in shock, running over to a large machine full of a purple liquid.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s more! Wait for it!” Betty shouted, pulling Sterns away from the machine. Alex flapped his wings to stay balanced on Betty’s shoulder but decided to seek a more stable perch on top of a shelf.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The transformation looked agonizing to Alex. His heart went out to his friend of nearly a year. Bruce didn’t deserve any of the bullshit that was his life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The popping of bones and joints was accompanied by an increasingly green flush across Bruce’s skin. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do it now!” Betty yelled, but Sterns appeared to be frozen in shock and horror.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The metal holding the chair up began to buckle under Bruce’s increasing mass. His head thrashed as green eyes darted around in their sockets. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Betty eventually jumped up onto Bruce’s transforming chest and held his face in her hands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bruce, stay with me, you’re gonna be okay!” She sent a fiery glare Stern’s way and shouted, “Do it NOW, or so help me God...!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sterns rushed over and hit buttons frantically on the machine, and after giving it a good kick, the plungers finally engaged and delivered the purple antidote into Bruce’s system.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The transformation looked just as painful in reverse, if you asked Alex, and soon enough the last tinges of green faded away from Bruce’s skin. Bruce lay limply on the slightly-buckled medical table and panted like a racehorse, his entire body shaking slightly and covered with a sheen of sweat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s alright. You’re alright. It’s over,” Betty breathed quietly, stroking Bruce’s forehead as she climbed off of him. Alex calmed his anxious tendrils and took a breath he didn’t need.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>After Bruce had recovered slightly, Sterns was debriefing everyone. Alex perched on Bruce’s shoulder after the man had recovered enough to stand on his own, and Alex kept a close eye on Sterns. The man seemed way too excited in Alex’s opinion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...the pulse came from the amygdala. I think Dr. Ross’ ‘primer’ lets the cells absorb the energy temporarily and then it abates. That’s why you didn’t die of radiation sickness years ago. Now maybe we’ve neutralized those cells permanently or maybe we just suppressed that event. I’m inclined to think the latter because none of our test subjects had a decline in absorption capacity, but of course they were getting Gamma in MUCH lower doses externally each time... But you! It’s like you’ve got a turbo booster in your brain. It’s one of the most wonderful things I’ve ever seen!” Sterns said breathlessly, a manic gleam in his eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not wonderful for Bruce,” Betty said sternly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In a medical science sense, of course. You’re miraculous!” Sterns said to the man in question, who grimaced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So how did you know it would work?” Betty questioned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I didn’t. But now that we have the data on Bruce’s initial--” Bruce cut Sterns off suddenly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait. You said ‘test subjects’. What test subjects?” Bruce asked gravely. Alex’s bad gut feeling was back with a vengeance. Test subjects were never a good thing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sterns led them all to another room, this one full of cages with various animals contained within. Rats, rheesus monkeys, and a few others are all there. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Some looked normal, but a bunch of them were slightly mutated, with bulging muscles and greyish skin. None of them were the bright, vibrant green of Hulk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>All three of them gazed around the room in horror. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh my God... what have you been doing?” Bruce breathed in horror. Alex belatedly realized that the poor man was staring at his own worst nightmare: more monsters just like him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well you didn’t send me much of yourself to work with and I couldn’t risk blowing the opportunity so we concentrated it and grew more. The same thing you were trying to do with the corablanca! You were my flower, see? A lot of the first pass didn’t survive of course but as you can see we’re doing much better. And we’re only giving them very low-dose Gamma so no power-lifters yet but the interesting thing…” Sterns’s mad scientist ramblings were again interrupted by Bruce.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ve got to destroy it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry, what?” Sterns laughed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“All of it. Right now. Show me your supply,” Bruce demanded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You must be joking! We’ll share a Nobel for this, the three of us! Think of the applications!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It doesn’t matter if it can’t be controlled...You don’t know the power of what we’re dealing with here!” Bruce yelled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But we’ve got the antidote now!” Sterns argued.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>This man is another Ross. He’s obsessed now. He’ll never stop trying to replicate Bruce. God fucking dammit.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex made an executive decision. There was no military to storm in and provide a convenient excuse for why Sterns mysteriously disappeared or Blonsky to start a grudge match and provide a cover for why Sterns’s head had been smashed like a grape.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They don’t want the antidote! They want a weapon. They want it to fight for them and if they get it then we lose control of it!” Bruce argued right back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh look, I hate the government too but you’re being a little paranoid don’t you th--?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex launched himself off of Bruce’s shoulder and transformed mid-air. When his feet hit the floor, he was taller than either man and Alex’s hand shot out and grabbed Sterns by the collar of his shirt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sterns’s eyes went wide and he gasped as inhuman ice-blue eyes bore into his.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No. No I’m not being paranoid. I know your type. You never know when to stop. When you’ve gone too far. This is much too far, and you still argue to go even further. I would know. I’m the product of what happens when you go too far. No matter what promises you make, no matter what data I destroy, no matter how many setbacks you suffer, your curiosity and madness will always prevail in the end. You won’t be able to stop yourself, and before you know it, you’ve created the deadliest thing to roam the stars. I refuse to let that happen,” Alex intoned blankly, as if he was talking about the weather.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait--wait, we can talk about this…!” Sterns pleaded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex could feel Bruce trying to tug him away from Sterns and Betty was shouting at him, but without going green, Alex might as well have been made of solid steel to Bruce. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex mentally debated on how to handle Sterns. Either way the man was going to die, the only question was how Alex wanted to stage the scene, as it were.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If Alex Consumed the man, he’d Consume all the ‘test subjects’ and any remaining samples and wipe all the computers of data. That would make it seem like the man had done a runner with the research, but that would prompt an investigation into Sterns’s disappearance, and there were many ways to recover data off of computers no matter how well you thought you wiped them. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The only way to make absolutely sure none of the data fell into the wrong hands was to destroy the computers entirely, and if Alex didn’t want an investigation into Stern’s whereabouts, the authorities would need a body, but Alex needed to know what Sterns knew.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was only one solution that Alex could see that would ensure the ‘test subjects’ got disposed of utterly, the data completely destroyed, and minimal investigation into the situation as a whole.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce and Betty were both yelling questions at him, but he ignored them both, forming a series of tendrils. Two of them picked his traveling companions up and gently deposited them outside the lab.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex’s tendrils effortlessly drug a heavy bookcase in front of the door, barring the way. He ignored the shouts of his friends.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex reached deep and activated ‘Call of Cthulhu’.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Sterns’s mind was a maze, thoughts flying everywhere, tunnels twisting and curving and morphing at the speed of thought. Though it was Sterns’s mind, Alex held dominion over it completely and utterly for the next three minutes.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Better make this quick.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex tore through the man’s mind, absorbing any relevant knowledge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Back in the physical world, Sterns twitched and gasped in Alex’s grip. Blood dripped from his nose. His dull greenish-gray eyes blazed a bright ice-blue and the man went limp before Alex dropped his lifeless body to the floor, the vibrant color fading away from Sterns’s eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex went through the lab and Consumed all the ‘test subjects’ before forming Hammerfists and smashing all the computers in the room into bits of worthless scrap before Consuming the materials for minerals.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sterns was a known anarchist who hated the government, and had involved himself with anarchist groups in the past, so Alex drug Sterns’s body over to a corner and propped it up against the wall. Using a Claw, he carved the anarchist symbol into Sterns’s forehead along with the words ‘We warned you’.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hopefully implicating the anarchist faction would throw any investigators off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex could still hear Bruce and Betty on the other side of the door, so Alex adopted a haunted look and moved the bookcase out of the way and quietly shut the lab door and locked it, using his tendrils to bypass the need for a key to do so.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alex, what in the hell was that?!” Bruce demanded. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex looked Bruce in the eyes and intoned in an emotionally dead voice, “He wasn’t going to stop, Bruce. He was like </span>
  <em>
    <span>them.</span>
  </em>
  <span> He was just like my creators. Those types never know when to stop. He’d have made a monster with that research eventually. A real one. Just destroying the data wasn’t enough.” Alex hugged himself with his arms, looking down, “It’s never enough to just destroy the data.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex could just </span>
  <em>
    <span>feel</span>
  </em>
  <span> Bruce’s objections to his actions dying. Bruce knew exactly what he was talking about. Nothing like implicating past trauma to justify yourself.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>The rest of the night was supremely awkward.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex pretended to be traumatized by his past and refused to talk much at all. Bruce was clearly conflicted but acknowledged the logic behind Alex killing Sterns. He’d been horrified at being confronted with his worst nightmare like that and would do just about anything to prevent another like him from being made.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Betty herded the both of them into another motel outside of NYC.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The next morning the three of them talked it out and it was decided that Betty would use the last of the money to rent a car and drive them out of state, up closer to the Canadian border. She would then drive back to the city and would call Samson from a pay phone and let him know where she was and get him to come pick her up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With his hopes of a cure dashed, Bruce decided to take Alex up on his offer to help him gain control of his Hulk form via meditation and other mental techniques. Alex decided the best place to do so was far away from civilization, and things didn’t get much more remote than the Canadian tundra.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>soo...alex is taking threat-elimination duty very seriously. </p><p>one thing i never got in the movie was they show some of bruce's blood dripping into sterns's head wound and the area around it goes all mutate-y, but then you never hear a word about sterns ever again in the MCU, despite the 2008 incredible hulk movie being the first movie in the MCU lineup. everyone just thinks its the first iron man since that movie did so well compared to incredible hulk, which was sorta a flop by comparison.</p><p>turns out, in the comics, sterns goes on to mutate and gets a giant head, literally, and is called MODAK or sum shit, idk i dont really remember, and he's a supervillain i think. again, read that info somewhere a hella long time ago and i could be wrong, idk, dont care that much. i think it was intended for there to be a sequel hulk movie at some point, but then the 2008 hulk movie flopped in the box office so they scrapped the idea and sterns got forgotten about</p><p>the first iron man movie was literally the last chance the MCU idea had at getting off the ground, and it did so well that it birthed the whole franchise basically. without iron man, there'd be no MCU. rogers can go eat a cactus, 'first avenger' my ass. MCU did tony dirty, and i intend to fucking rectify that</p><p>honestly im not really trying to bash rogers on purpose in my fic, but i just straight up dont like him at all and that comes across when i write his character. in a later chapter, there's a whole section where alex just explodes on the guy b/c he cant take rogers's 'holier-than-thou' BS anymore. god i hate the ending of endgame so fucking much, its half the reason i wanted to write this fic in the first place. </p><p>every opinion is valid guys, but that doesn't mean you have to agree or disagree with anyone. but im guessing that not many of you lovely readers are giant cap fans, considering the 'team iron man' tag in the summary of my story, so. if you are, don't bitch at me in the comments about it, cause you've all been warned.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. So A Sapient Virus, A Super-Genius, And A Gamma Monster Walk Into A Lab...</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>wooo, avengers time, baby!! finally! to make up for the lack of update yesterday, here's a fuckin massive chapter that i probably should've cut in half, but whatevs</p><p>again, large portions of dialogue were taken from an online script of the movie i found. i tried to add in enough to make it new and interesting, so hopefully it doesn't bore you guys too bad. unfortunately, its mostly setup and a bit of worldbuilding. a bunch of alex being a horror monster again, so yay :)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>For once, the plan went off without a hitch. The pair traveled through Canada, heading for Alaska, before Alex had a brainwave one night.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey Bruce? Y’know what’s an even better place than the Arctic Circle to ensure no one comes after us?” Alex asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know, Alex. Why, you think of something?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, I just had an amazing idea. I’m totally immune to radiation now, and you were never in danger from that in the first place, but humans need lots of special gear to survive in places that are radioactive, right? So, what if we made our way across Asia and Eastern Europe to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone? The radiation levels there are stupid high and the whole area is abandoned, so even if certain governments wanted to hunt us down again, they wouldn’t be able to send any men in!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One thing he’d learned that was different in the MCU from his original dimension was that the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Disaster was so much worse in the MCU. The failure and subsequent explosion of the reactor had been much more extreme, resulting in insanely high radiation levels in a much larger area that was more circular around Ground Zero. For two beings that were either immune to, or fed on radiation, it was the perfect place to lay low.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Holy shit, you’re right…” Bruce said in amazement.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We wouldn’t really be able to leave very easily, but the entire area was condemned essentially, no one besides small science teams pay attention to it anymore, and the area’s huge. We could easily live off the land, Little-House-on-the-Prairie-style, and no one could stop us!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, what about feeding you?” Bruce questioned with concern. “If there aren’t any people...will you be okay?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. There’s bound to be big game in the outer edges of the forest that hasn’t been killed off due to the radiation, and who knows, maybe there’ll be enough radiation to sustain me? I’ve been experimenting with different ways to make myself as close to self-sustaining as possible. I’ve already greatly improved the efficiency of my photosynthesis, and if we aren’t constantly needing to move around, I might be able to get by on that alone. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out and we can go back to traveling the world like we have been.”</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>The Chernobyl idea turned out to be one of Alex’s most brilliant moments to date. It had taken many weeks of travel to cross the distance over land while avoiding humanity, but they made relatively good time by having Bruce ride on Alex as he raced across empty terrain in his Warg form. Bruce still hated it, but for the sake of getting to Chernobyl as quickly as possible, he grit his teeth and bore it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They’d managed to sneak into the Exclusion Zone no problem. There was a large fence erected, but no real security. The entire area was radioactive as all hell, why would anyone want to sneak in? Anyone stupid enough to try would die a horrible death to radiation poisoning. Everyone except Alex and Bruce, that was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce found that the radiation seemed to energize him almost, and Alex improved his radiotrophagy to be more efficient by an order of magnitude. He rarely had to actually Consume anything anymore, just the occasional deer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce took up residence in one of the more intact buildings and Alex scavenged the area for supplies and helped rebuild and clear the area around Bruce’s abode.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex himself finally set down viral roots and formed a Hive right in the heart of Ground Zero, practically on top of the reactor meltdown site. Fleshy webs grew over the remains of the reactor, the surrounding area made quite warm by both the living flesh and the immense radioactivity.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex was the only resident of the Hive though. Alex wasn’t Elizabeth Greene, and he had zero desire to make any infected minions. Bruce had been fascinated by the process and documented the progress of Alex’s Hive as it grew outwards from the reactor site and became more complex, with different structures forming and rearranging themselves to make the Hive more comfortable for its creator.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Structures like organic solar panels formed on the parts of the Hive that were exposed to air and the whole mass was self-sustaining. Alex could partially merge with the Hive and benefit from the free energy, not that he did so very often. The radiation was more than enough to keep him fed, but photosynthesizing for a few hours was calming, he found. It was great during the meditation sessions he had with Bruce.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce would practice organizing his mind and gaining control over himself, and Alex would make like a plant and just vibe on the floor, large flat tendrils spreading out from his form to take in as much light as possible.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With Alex being so well-fed all the time, he noticed that his body didn’t react at all to skin contact anymore, unlike before. Before, even though his body had sort of recognized Bruce as a fellow predator and not quite as prey, there was always that underlying instinctual urge to bury his Feeder Tendrils into anything warm and fleshy, no matter if he was actually hungry or not.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex hadn’t even noticed how exhausting it was to reign in that particular urge until he no longer had to constantly repress the instinct. He always had to make a subconscious effort to not Consume everyone around him at all hours of the day, and he hadn’t even really noticed until he no longer had to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he finally realized that, </span>
  <em>
    <span>Alex</span>
  </em>
  <span> was the one who’d had a bit of a freak-out that Bruce had to calm him down from. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Since then, Alex had become quite touchy-feely indeed, with him occasionally riding around on Hulk’s broad shoulders as an amorphous mass of tentacles and teeth and eyes like some kind of horrifying eldritch flesh-shawl.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he wasn’t hitching a ride, Alex could usually be found in his combat form. Tall, four-armed, and armed with a wicked-looking tail, Alex’s combat form was a sight to behold.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’d since added velociraptor-like claws to his digitigrade legs and red bioluminescent patterns to his black armored combat form, and Alex thought it was gorgeous in a deadly, alien way. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He loved racing Bruce as Hulk through the abandoned city streets, skittering on all sixes or just twos across vertical surfaces like they were flat ground as Hulk laughed and roared playfully as he tried to catch Alex, who Hulk still insisted on calling Puppy. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Overall, things were going fantastically for the pair of self-proclaimed monsters. Alex had been making steady progress with Bruce about accepting himself and controlling himself when he went green, when one day, something remarkable happened.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Alex was relaxing on the floor of Bruce’s home on an animal fur rug, enjoying taking in both the sunlight and all the radiation as Bruce meditated across from him in a sort of kilt-toga-loincloth much too large for him. It was wrapped around his waist many times and secured with clips in order to stay up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex had made them for his friend to meditate in so he wouldn’t ruin his clothes if/when he transformed. When he was Hulk, temperatures didn’t bother him at all, so the pair went with the simplest solution to the clothes problem while still allowing Bruce to maintain his dignity.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex gently murmured soft encouragements as he watched Bruce from an eyeless face. Alex didn’t quite know how it worked, but he could still see just fine even though his combat form didn’t actually have eyes as far as he knew. One of life’s mysteries he supposed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex overlaid his normal sight with his thermal vision and used his vibration-sensing ability and noted Bruce’s calm countenance as his heart rate steadily soared before stopping just shy of the transformation’s threshold.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s alright Bruce, just let go. I’m right here with you,” Alex murmured sleepily. Photosynthesizing always mellowed him out while he was doing it. Alex had always chalked it up to ‘plant vibes’.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce let out a little sigh, and the transformation washed over him in a smooth wave, no trace of pain or hesitance visible. The clips holding his garment to his waist dropped away as Bruce’s expanding bulk filled the large waistband, allowing the cloth to stay up on its own.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex gently swept his tail across the floor, enjoying the sensation of plush animal fur on the softer, more sensitive spines on his tail. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>When he was calm, the spines were soft and fleshy and good for collecting sensory information. When he got anxious or tense though, they stiffened and became as strong as the rest of his armored form. Alex liked using the spikes on the bulbous end of his tail like a mace.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk opened his eyes, and Alex’s seemingly eyeless gaze met his. Hulk blinked at him and said, “Alex?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex froze. Bruce as Hulk never, ever called him Alex. It was always Puppy. Always.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, Bruce?” Asked Alex.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce looked down with totally clear eyes at his enormous green hands. “I--I think I’ve done it. I’m me...I’m me!” He exclaimed with joy in a voice that was much deeper than he was used to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex’s calm, mellowed state was shattered as he recalled his sunlight-collecting tendrils and pumped all four fists in the air in triumph. “Fuck yeah! I knew you could do it! What’d I tell you? You’d get it eventually. You owe me ten bucks by the way. Only took you two years!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce, for it was really just Bruce now, no matter his color, threw his head back and laughed in triumph, engulfing his taller, skinnier friend in a massive hug, his toughened green skin not hurt by all of Alex’s pointy bits in the least. Alex laughed and hugged him back, happy for his friend’s success.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bruce spent a lot more time in his Hulk shape after that, because by gaining control over the form, it seemed to trigger some kind of internal shift. While Bruce was still capable of being regular-sized on command, doing so for too long made him irritable because it apparently felt like his skin was too small, and after enough time a couple of days usually, he’d be forced to revert to his bigger, greener self.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce was just so happy to be in control of himself that he accepted being Hulk-shaped by default as the price he had to pay for the safety of those around him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The pair of them enjoyed romps through the derelict city, racing each other through the dilapidated buildings, with Bruce taking large, bounding strides and Alex racing along the ground or walls on all sixes like a lizard or an insect.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Science Station Alpha housed only a few scientists that rotated out on a six-month basis. They were there to monitor the radiation levels of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and occasionally take some soil, water, or plant samples from the safer outer areas, and not much else.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>By the scientists, it was considered something of punishment detail or sometimes a leisurely vacation. Nothing exciting ever happened. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Until things changed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The scientists noted the slowly dropping radiation levels in the innermost areas of the Exclusion Zone. At first they thought it must have been a sensor malfunction, but the decline was steady. Only in the innermost areas though, the outer fringes and more heavily-forested areas remained as radioactive as ever, which was completely baffling to the scientists. The decline was minor, but still significant enough to be slightly alarming.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They took more samples and reported their findings back to their superiors and otherwise just did their jobs. Their boring, safe jobs. Until the government, some branch they’d never heard of--SHIELD or something like that--wanted more info. Pictures, more specifically.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They were sent a special, expensive, radiation-proof camera and hazmat suit, and told to go in and take pictures of the innermost areas of the Exclusion Zone. They all pulled straws because they were lab scientists, not field workers!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jeffries drew the shortest straw and cursed.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Jeffries mentally cursed out Alicia as he donned the ugly hazmat suit that would hopefully keep him from dying a horrible death-by-radiation-poisoning. She must have rigged the straws, he just knew it. She always cheated during poker night and had looked way too pleased with herself after seeing that he’d drawn the short straw. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He hooked up the air supply and pulled the helmet on before sealing the whole thing. He grabbed the special camera and sample kit before making his way through the woods.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The hike was long, and Jeffries was sweating like a pig by the time he finally reached the inner city. What did the higher-ups even want pictures for? It was the same broken, crumbling trash-heap as it always was.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Look--there was the derelict bus, the one with the funny license plate number, that one weirdly-shaped tree Jeffries always thought looked like a grasping hand, the apartment building that had halfway crumbled, and the giant green man relaxing in the giant rocking chair…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wait, what was that last one?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jeffries shakily raised the camera and zoomed in, hoping it was just his imagination. Nope, there was a giant, green, shirtless man in a weird kilt apparently napping in an equally giant rocking chair made of roughly-hewn wood. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The whole weird-ass scene was completed by the sight of a large, sturdy storage building that had apparently been renovated into a cozy-looking home by the giant green man.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then the front door opened and there was a weird, faint sort of squelching noise, and <em>ohw</em></span>
  <em>
    <span>hatinthefuckwasthat?!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>A tentacled horror covered in ice-blue eyes and teeth, </span>
  <em>
    <span>dear god the teeth,</span>
  </em>
  <span> squirmed over the threshold of the door and across the porch to crawl its way onto the shoulders of the giant green man, who sleepily opened a single eye to look at it before going back to his nap, seemingly not minding the eldritch abomination lounging on him like a lazy cat!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jeffries snapped a bunch of photos before getting the hell out of there. When he got back to the station, he was cursing Alicia out and quitting on the spot. No way was he sticking around within ten thousand miles of whatever the fuck that was. No way in hell. Not for all the money in the world. Jeffries was an avid fan of horror movies, but he found that it was significantly less fun when you were living in one.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Fury stared at the photos and report sitting on his desk in something close to disbelief. On the one hand, they’d finally located the wayward Dr. Banner, in Chernobyl of all places, but on the other hand something else had seemed to have found Dr. Banner as well. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The only consolation was that Dr. Banner seemed to have gotten some control over his meaner, greener side if the calm way he was napping in a rocking chair in just the right size for him was any indication.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fury didn’t know what the fuck he was looking at, and neither did any of the scientists who’d written he damn report. Fury pulled out his secret stash of what he termed his ‘WTF Whiskey’. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was used only in instances of situations just like this one, where he didn’t know what the fuck was going on, only that it was likely to cause him endless amounts of migraines.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fury retrieved a glass and poured himself a very generous portion.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bruce was relaxing from a particularly long run with Alex, and he was enjoying a large cup of tea big enough for his enormous green form out of a large tankard made of bone that Alex had grown. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>A lot of their furniture was bone to at least some degree, since it was easy for Alex to grow using his powers and sturdy enough for it to be useful as furniture. Animal furs acted as padding or rugs for a majority of the space.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce’s home had been renovated from a large insulated storage building, and everything was sized for people with larger-than average proportions. Several of the chairs included tail-friendly holes in the backs so Alex could sit in them comfortably without having to shift his form.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce was enjoying the warmth of the sun, idly gazing out the window when suddenly Alex came barreling through the back door, body language tense.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What’s wrong Alex?” Bruce asked, looking worried.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Someone’s here. They just flew over in a jet of some kind.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shit, do you think it has anything to do with that weird energy pulse we felt days ago? Is it the military?” Bruce wondered, standing up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, I don’t think it’s the military. They’d have sent more than one measly jet if it was. I have a hunch, but I almost hope I’m wrong,” Alex said, growling lowly. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who do you think it is?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My best guess would be an organization called SHIELD, stands for some stupidly long name I can’t remember exactly, but they’re like this secret spy agency that guards against unusual threats. They’ve had encounters with aliens before, not all of them good. I’m almost positive they were fucking with alien shit they didn’t understand and that’s what we felt days ago.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They’re one of the main groups I tried my best to avoid; they’d definitely find a way to justify nuking my ass. Not that it would work, but it’s the principle of the thing. Who gives a shit about civilian casualties or property damage as long as we eliminate the threat, right? Now who does that remind you of?” Alex growled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce scowled in remembrance, “So, what do we do? Run? Fight?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let’s see what they want first. If my other guess is right, they actually came here for Dr. Banner, world’s leading specialist on gamma radiation first, and Hulk, indestructible monster second. Not that they’d object to getting their hands on the latter, you understand, so don’t trust them at all. Their secrets have secrets.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So what, just wait for them to stroll up the porch and invite them in for tea and hope they don’t send a missile through the front door?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The bottom of Alex’s mask split into a devious smile, exposing a maw of razor fangs.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Natasha Romanoff, the infamous Black Widow, was forgoing her usual tactical catsuit for an unflattering, but necessary, radiation-proof hazmat suit.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Quinjet touched down outside of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and Natasha began the long hike towards her destination.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her Geiger-counter clicked and whirred in an increasing intensity the further in she got and she warily made her way forward. Several times, she caught sight of something moving out of the corner of her eye, but when she turned there was never anything there.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She desperately wished she had backup, but there were a very limited number of radiation suits, and a single puncture could spell doom for the wearer, so it was deemed too risky to bring in more people than absolutely necessary.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Natasha shivered and made her way forwards, certain she was being watched. By what exactly, she didn’t know. </span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Natasha eventually located the building she was searching for. It looked to be a renovated storage building of some kind. It had various wooden add-ons, including a homey-looking porch, complete with Hulk-sized rocking chair. Natasha steeled herself and knocked sharply on the enormous wooden door three times.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was shuffling from inside, and the door swung open, and it took all of Natasha’s training to not run for the hills. Standing there in the doorway was the Hulk. Big, green, bare-chested and barefoot, and wearing what looked like a kilt made of various stitched-together bits of fabric and animal furs. He scowled down at her and she swallowed dryly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What organization do you belong to and what do you want?” The Hulk growled, surprisingly articulate. Nothing in all the evidence SHIELD had on him suggested the beast was capable of speech.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I-I’m Natasha Romanoff, Agent of SHIELD. I’m here on behalf of Director Fury. May I talk to Dr. Banner, please?” She asked, the single stutter the only thing that betrayed her nervousness.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Hulk crossed his enormous arms over his broad chest and said, “You’re looking at him. What the hell do you want? We came all the way out here to avoid people like you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We?” Natasha questioned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oi! You’re letting all the cold air in you </span>
  <b>bosh’tet</b>
  <span>! Tell the Black Widow to get her ass inside already!” Another voice shouted from inside the cabin. It sounded odd and chilling. It was a gravelly man’s voice, but underneath that was an undertone that sounded like many people speaking at once. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aside from that, the foreign word scraped at Natasha’s brain like sandpaper. She knew a dozen languages fluently, and even more than that well enough to identify them, but she was utterly unable to place that word. Even so, she somehow knew the word translated to ‘bastard’.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Natasha shivered and stepped inside when the Hulk, or Dr. Banner she supposed, stepped aside to let her in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Natasha stopped short at seeing the nightmarish black figure crouched by the fireplace. Organic black plates covered its form like an insect and reflected the firelight oddly, and it had four arms tipped in three fingers and a thumb with short, hooked claws ending them off. It had a long, sinuous tail studded with smooth barbs along its length, ending in a slightly clubbed end studded with more spikes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It had digitigrade legs that ended in predatory saurian feet, each with a large, sickle-shaped claw on the innermost toe like a velociraptor. Its face was an eerily blank oval like a mannequin’s head with a large jaw filled with fangs at the bottom. Sinisterly glowing red tribal patterns decorated its form, with some looking almost like words, or maybe runes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Currently, it was facing the fireplace, but its head and neck had twisted around to look right at her, like an owl.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello there, little spider,” The thing said in a bone-chilling voice. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How do you know who I am?” Natasha asked mildly, but inside, her mind was racing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know lots of things. Perhaps I might even tell you some of them if you prove to be interesting enough.” The thing said cryptically. “Luckily for you, the Tesseract is very interesting indeed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How did you know that’s what I was coming here to discuss?” Natasha asked, keeping a wary eye on the giant green form of Dr. Banner as he stepped around her to take a seat in an enormous chair padded with animal furs. He picked up a mug made out of what she thought might be bone and took a sip of whatever liquid was inside.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The creature stood to its full height, even taller than Dr. Banner’s enormous form by a good several inches. It flexed its claws on all four hands before it walked over and also took a seat in a chair that had a large gap in the back of it for it to fit its tail through.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I didn’t. But you just confirmed it for me, so thanks for that,” The creature grinned at her with a mouthful of deadly teeth and Natasha tried not to feel too annoyed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In all seriousness, the pulse of power I felt on the other side of this planet days ago is what alerted me to the fact that you humans were messing with something beyond your comprehension. I’m guessing someone stole it from you and you need Bruce’s help to unfuck the situation?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re very perceptive,” Natasha said mildly, pulling out the phone with the picture of the Tesseract on it and showing it to Dr. Banner. “This is the Tesseract. It has the potential energy to wipe out the planet. The Tesseract emits a gamma signature that’s too weak for us to trace. No one knows gamma radiation like you do. If there was, that’s where I’d be.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, Fury wants me to find the magic space cube, and that’s it? He’s not after...all this?” Dr. Banner said, gesturing to his green form.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not that he’s told me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And he tells you everything, does he?” The black creature purred, smiling at her. She sensed a verbal trap.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Talk to Fury, he really needs you on this. I’m sure we could find a place for your friend in all this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In a cage you mean? Or perhaps on a dissection table?” Dr. Banner said, narrowing his gamma-green eyes at her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No one’s gonna put either of you in a ca--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“STOP LYING TO US!” Dr. Banner roared, standing up and knocking his large chair back. His green fists were clenched and he stared at her in anger.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Natasha instinctively drew her gun and aimed it at him. Surprisingly, all the anger bled out of his form. His body language went from hostile to non-confrontational in a flash. Natasha doubted that he was truly calm.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I'm sorry, that was mean. I just wanted to see what you'd do. Why don't we do this the easy way, where you don't use that, and Alex doesn't make a mess all over my nice rug? Okay? Alex, stand down. Not like she could hurt us with that pea-shooter anyways,” Dr. Banner sighed, looking at something above and behind her. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Natasha slowly put her gun down, turned around, and was face-to-face with an enormous blade aimed right at her spine.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The black monster, Alex apparently, had its lower right arm transformed into a massive blade, somehow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Looks like you live to spy another day, </span>
  <b>Ah'legeth'drn</b>
  <span>,” Alex said, its arm melting into a writhing mess of tentacles that reformed into an arm that matched the others in every way. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Her spine shivered at the foreign word, knowing Alex had called her ‘liar’ but meaning it like a title.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, if we’re going with you to track down the cube, I assume we should go in our civvies? No need to make all the baby agents pass out the second we walk into a room,” Dr. Banner said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If you can transform back Dr. Banner, that would make transportation much easier,” Natasha said diplomatically.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can, for a few days at least. I’m not going anywhere without Alex, though. We’re a package deal,” He said firmly, crossing his arms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m sure something can be arranged to bring them along,” Natasha said, carefully hiding her dislike of the idea.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, no need to make special arrangements on my behalf, Widow,” Alex said, right before he shrunk down in a whirl of tendrils and reformed into a man in a hoodie and leather jacket with fever-bright ice-blue eyes shining out from under his hood. “I’ll fit on the Quinjet just fine,” Alex said in a much more human-sounding voice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Natasha tried to not let her surprise show on her face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dr. Banner opened a cabinet and retrieved a set of human-sized clothes and said, “You two go on ahead, I’ll catch up in a minute.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sure thing, Bruce,” Alex said easily, before walking across the room and putting the fire out. He then stuck his hands in his pants pockets and strolled out the door, heading right for the Quinjet even though she hadn’t yet told him where it was parked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She hurried out the door of the oversized house and followed him through the rubble of a radioactive city. When she caught up with him, he leaned towards her and stated blandly, like he was talking about the weather, “I don’t care what you try and do about me, but you hurt Bruce, you so much as hint towards putting him in a cage, and I will burn your little organization to the ground. Every agent, every spy, every building, every fucking box of paperwork. I’ve destroyed much greater organizations than yours. You won’t ever see me coming. No one ever does.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is that a threat?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s a promise, Natalia Romanova. No one hurts my friends.”</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>All three of them had to go through decontamination procedures before Romanoff let any of them on the Quinjet so they wouldn’t be walking radiation hazards to everyone else. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex was pleased to note that the industrial-grade germicides and disinfectants used in one of the procedures only tingled against his viral form faintly. Alex had truly evolved beyond his previous limits. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Living in an irradiated, ruined city for two years and change had forced his structure to adapt in some very interesting ways. Alex was no longer sure if he even technically qualified as a virus anymore. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He had traits from practically every major evolutionary tree. Prokaryotic traits, eukaryotic traits, bacterial traits, viral traits, fungal traits, animal traits, plant traits--didn’t matter--it was all there. He was a truly chimeric lifeform. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex idly entertained the daydream of providing a sample of himself to some scientists and watching their heads explode as they tried and failed to comprehend him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Not that he’d ever do something so foolish, of course, but the thought was entertaining.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Quinjet ride back to the Helicarrier was boring as shit, so Alex entertained himself by talking in R’Lyehian to Bruce and watching Romanoff squirm in discomfort. Bruce was no longer affected by the eldritch language, having heard Alex speak it countless times over the past two years. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce himself could not speak it of course, though Alex had offered to teach him. Bruce had declined, stating that it felt like a bad idea, for some reason.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>After many hours, the Quinjet finally landed and Alex practically launched himself out of the thing, eager to taste fresh air again. Bruce followed at a much more sedate pace.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce’s gamma-green eyes calmly took in the sights. That was the one thing that never changed, no matter his shape. Alex liked to joke that they had a theme going.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Romanoff led them forwards and went to go talk to one Steve Rogers. Alex frowned. He didn’t want to deal with the self-righteous boy scout at the moment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rogers and Romanoff conversed for a bit, mainly about Coulson’s rabid fanboyism, before Rogers turned and greeted Bruce.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dr. Banner,” Rogers said, shaking Bruce’s hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, yeah. Hi. They told me you'd be coming,” Bruce responded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Word is you can find the cube.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is that the only word on me?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Only word I care about,” Rogers said. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex knew that was a lie, considering he flipped out at Tony poking Bruce in the lab in the movie. If he really didn’t care about Hulk he wouldn’t have done that, or at least not have been so harsh about it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex scoffed, </span>
  <b>“Ah'legeth'drn.” </b>
  <em>
    <span>(Liar.)</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bless you,” Rogers said, looking at Alex strangely. “Hello, I’m Steve Rogers, who are you?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m Alex. I don’t like you,” Alex said bluntly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alex! Be polite!” Bruce scolded. Alex ignored him in favor of staring Captain America down. Beside the man, the Black Widow tensed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um...I’m...sorry? Did I do something wrong?” Rogers asked, looking taken aback by the blunt admission.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can smell the fake on you. It offends my senses,” Alex said. He abruptly turned to go inside, unable to stand staring at his face any longer. It was just too punchable.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>so</span>
  </em>
  <span> sorry about him. He has a hard time with new people sometimes,” Bruce tried to explain.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s alright, there’s always going to be people that don’t like you, no real way around that. If I got hung up about everyone who didn’t like me, I’d never get anything done,” Steve said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce nodded absently and tried to make small-talk, “Must be strange for you, all of this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, this is actually kind of familiar.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Gentlemen, you may wanna step inside in a minute. It's gonna get a little hard to breath out here,” Natasha chimed in, before turning to head inside, probably to keep an eye on Alex too, now that Bruce thought about it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is this a submarine?” Steve asked, eyebrows rising towards his hairline.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really? They wanted </span>
  <em>
    <span>me</span>
  </em>
  <span> in a submerged, pressurized metal container?” Bruce joked. He watched as the rotors revealed themselves and began to spin, slowly lifting the huge aircraft carrier into the sky. Bruce smiled in amusement. “Oh, no. This is </span>
  <em>
    <span>much</span>
  </em>
  <span> worse.”</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Alex prowled his way onto the bridge, sticking to the shadows and going unnoticed thus far. He watched as Fury commanded the bridge of the Helicarrier with his presence.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright people. Let’s vanish,” He said dramatically. Alex rolled his eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce and Rogers made their way onto the bridge, where Rogers handed Fury ten bucks. Fury looked amused and walked over to shake hands with Bruce. The man clearly saw Bruce’s gamma-green eyes and carefully did not react, even though Alex caught the way his heart rate spiked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Doctor, thank you for coming,” Fury said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thanks for asking nicely. So, uh... how long are we staying?” Bruce asked. Alex made himself known by coming to stand on Bruce’s right, where Fury’s blind side was. The man clearly noticed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Once we get our hands on the Tesseract, you're in the clear.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why does everyone on this boat insist on lying to our faces, Bruce? Do they think we’re stupid?” Alex asked mildly. Bruce gave him a look.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ignore him. Where are you with that?” Bruce asked. Fury turned to Coulson, who elaborated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We're sweeping every wirelessly accessible camera on the planet. Cellphones, laptops. If it's connected to a satellite, it's eyes and ears for us.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That's still not gonna find them in time,” Romanoff said, voice carefully even.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You have to narrow the field. How many spectrometers do you have access to?” Bruce questioned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How many are there?” Fury responded with a small smirk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Call every lab you know, tell them to put the spectrometers on the roof and calibrate them for gamma rays. I'll rough out a tracking algorithm based on cluster recognition. At least we could rule out a few places. Do you have somewhere for me to work?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Agent Romanoff, would you show Dr. Banner to his laboratory, please?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Natasha nodded and walked off, leading Bruce down the hall. Alex prowled after them silently.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You're gonna love it, Doc. We got all the toys.”</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Time passed, and when Alex caught sight of Loki being escorted down the hall by a bunch of armed guards, Alex neatly stepped in front of Loki’s line of sight to Bruce and smiled inhumanly wide, exposing not blunt human teeth, but the dozens of razor fangs he preferred. His ice-blue eyes glowed fever-bright from underneath his hood.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Loki’s eyes widened but he was led away quickly, frogmarched into the clear cell meant for Alex’s dearest and only friend.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex watched from the monitors as Fury made his whole ‘ant meet boot’ speech, but then things began to deviate a bit from the script Alex remembered and he leaned in, interested.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It's an impressive cage. Not built, I think, for me,” Loki said, pacing slowly around the cage.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Built for something a lot stronger than you,” Fury said in response. Alex couldn’t keep a vicious growl from escaping. The others in the room looked at him sharply at hearing the clearly inhuman noise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s okay, Alex,” Bruce tried to soothe, but Alex shook his head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s really not.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex’s unblinking gaze remained glued to the screen. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, I've heard,” Loki looked into the camera. “The mindless beast, makes play he's still a man. And something else, besides. How desperate are you, that you call upon such lost creatures to defend you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How desperate am I? You threaten my world with war. You steal a force you can't hope to control. You talk about peace and you kill ‘cause it's fun. You have made me very desperate. You might not be glad that you did.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ooh. It burns you to come so close. To have the Tesseract, to have power, unlimited power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share, and then to be reminded what real power is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nick Fury smiled like he’d won something, “Well, you let me know if Real Power wants a magazine or something.” Fury walked off, leaving Loki alone in his glass cell. Loki looked back into the camera, smirking. Alex growled and closed the monitor.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“He really grows on you, doesn't he?” Bruce joked lightly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>"Only I'm allowed to do that," Alex said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Loki's gonna drag this out. So, Thor, what's his play?” Rogers asked seriously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He has an army called the Chitauri. They're not of Asgard or any world known. He means to lead them against your people. They will win him the earth in return, I suspect, for the Tesseract,” Thor explained.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“An army? From outer space?” Rogers asked incredulously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s really not that hard to believe, is it?” Alex said, a single eyebrow raised. “You’re on an invisible flying boat, there’s extraterrestrials in the boat with you--in the same room as you even--and somehow the fact that aliens have armies too is what you get hung up on?” Alex asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So he's building another portal. That's what he needs Erik Selvig for,” Bruce concluded, trying to bring the conversation back on track.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Selvig?” Thor asked, looking concerned and interested.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He's an astrophysicist,” Bruce offered as clarification.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He's a friend,” Thor declared.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Loki has him under some kind of spell, along with one of ours,” Romanoff said, blank-faced.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wanna know why Loki let us take him. He's not leading an army from here,” Rogers declared.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’d be surprised. Leaders don’t always have to be present for minions to carry out their plans, especially if there’s mind-fuckery going on,” Alex said, thinking back to Redlight and Elizabeth Greene. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Though Alex had blitzed into the lab and attacked her immediately and Consumed her before she had a chance to mount a counterattack, the Hunters had been a real bitch to deal with after the fact.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don't think we should be focusing on Loki. That guy's brain is a bag full of cats, you can smell crazy on him,” Bruce said offhandedly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Have care how you speak. Loki is beyond reason, but he is of Asgard, and he is my brother,” Thor said, a tone of warning carried within the words.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He killed eighty people in two days,” Natasha deadpanned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pfft, that number is almost insultingly low. If he was really serious about this whole invasion thing, there’d be a lot more dead people by now,” Alex said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thor looked at him oddly for the comment but nodded. “Yes, that does seem a bit unusual. Though my brother relies more on tricks and subterfuge, he is very capable of causing immense devastation with his magic when the mood strikes him. His behavior has been very odd. I cannot make sense of it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sounds like a man after my own heart,” Alex said, smirking.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But iridium, what did they need the Iridium for?” Bruce questioned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>From around a corner, Tony Stark entered the room with Coulson, and already the man had a noticeable presence. He certainly knew how to cater to an audience, Alex thought. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It's a stabilizing agent,” Tony said with confidence, “Means the portal won't collapse on itself, like it did at SHIELD.” Tony turned to address Thor, “No hard feelings, Point Break. You've got a mean swing.” Tony turned back to the room at large and continued, “Also, it means the portal can open as wide, and stay open as long, as Loki wants.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tony stood in the circular command deck that pretty much functioned as the proverbial Captain’s chair of the Helicarrier.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, raise the mid-mast, ship the top sails!” Suddenly Tony pointed to a seemingly random SHIELD agent sitting behind a computer. “That man is playing Galaga! Thought we wouldn't notice. But we did,” Tony declared, nodding a bit. He then covered his left eye and looked around at the panel of screens surrounding the podium. “How does Fury do this?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He turns,” Maria Hill said, faintly amused.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex was paying attention to how Tony moved and noticed the exact moment Tony placed a tiny hacking device under the railing holding the various screens up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, that sounds exhausting. The rest of the raw materials, Agent Barton can get his hands on pretty easily. Only major component he still needs is a power source. A high energy density, something to kick-start the cube.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“When did you become an expert in thermonuclear astrophysics?” Hill questioned, eyebrows raised.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Last night. The packet, Selvig's notes, the Extraction Theory papers. Am I the only one who did the reading?” Tony asked, looking around the room in mock shock.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?” Rogers asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He's got to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb Barrier,” Bruce said, looking at Tony.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunneling effect,” Tony declared.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, if he could do that he could achieve Heavy Ion Fusion at any reactor on the planet,” Bruce replied. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Though his expression didn’t change much, Alex could tell that his friend was happy to be discussing Science! again. Alex held a lot of stolen scientific knowledge, but he personally wasn’t smart enough to hold a debate about theoretical physics. Facts and explanations, he could do. Dynamic opinions and theorizing? Not so much.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tony smiled and approached Bruce, “Finally, someone who speaks English!” He declared happily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is that what just happened?” Rogers asked incredulously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two true galaxy-brained individuals in the room shook hands and Alex saw the mutual respect for each other as scientists take shape in the both of them. Alex was happy for his friend, but still wary of Tony’s true intentions. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>At the end of the Avengers movie, Bruce had gone with Tony but it was implied he took to traveling the world again after that, so Alex wasn’t sure what had happened to cause Bruce to leave the safe science-haven that was Stark Tower.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It's good to meet you, Dr. Banner. Your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled. And I'm a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster,” Tony said with a grin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce looked at Tony with bright green eyes. “I’m a lot less rage-y these days. I haven’t lost control in quite a while,” Bruce declared with a small, mysterious smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tony whistled, impressed. “Is that so? Would asking for a demonstration be too forward at this stage in our relationship?” Tony asked teasingly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nick Fury walked into the room from a hallway announcing, “Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube. I was hoping you might join him.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let's start with that stick of his. It may be magical, but it works an awful lot like a HYDRA weapon,” Rogers declared.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don't know about that, but it is powered by the cube. And I'd like to know how Loki used it to turn two of the sharpest men I know into his personal flying monkeys,” Fury stated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Monkeys? I do not understand,” Thor said, confused.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I do! I understood that reference,” Rogers said, like it was some kind of accomplishment. If Alex’s eyes rolled any harder, they’d fallen right out of his head. Tony seemed to share his sentiment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Shall we play, doctor?” Tony asked Bruce, extending one arm towards the hallway in invitation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let's play some,” Bruce smiled. Alex followed silently after the pair.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Tony and Bruce worked for hours, trading technobabble back and forth that Alex could only partly follow along with. He stuck close to Bruce the entire time. He’d gotten used to all the freely-available radiation in Chernobyl and he was starting to feel peckish.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex eyed Tony’s Arc Reactor and wondered if the man could be persuaded to share the schematics with him. A power-source that powerful and portable would go a long way to solving his energy problems.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The gamma readings are definitely consistent with Selvig's reports on the Tesseract. But it's gonna take weeks to process,” Bruce complained.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If we bypass their mainframe--”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What would I have to bribe you with to get the schematics for the Arc Reactor?” Alex asked Tony bluntly, interrupting the six-hundredth instance of technobabble.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?” Tony asked, completely taken off guard.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What would I have to bribe you with to get the schematics for the Arc Reactor?” Alex repeated. “I’m hungry and the unique radiation I’m sensing from it smells divine,” He offered as an explanation. Alex kept his gaze locked on the device, absolutely oblivious to how utterly inhuman he looked in that moment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tony took a step back and covered his Arc Reactor with a hand, “O...kayyy...I don’t know how to unpack all of that, so I’ll just go with: it’s not for sale and you sure as hell can’t have the one in my chest! I kinda need it to live! And what the hell was that about smelling radiation? Who even are you? You weren’t in the debriefing packet,” Tony babbled nervously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alex, why didn’t you tell me you were hungry? You know I don’t mind sharing, especially when I’m like this,” Bruce said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But there’s people around...they’d stare,” Alex pointed out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Um, hello? Am I invisible?” Tony asked, put out by being left out of the conversation. Alex and Bruce both ignored him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t care what other people think. Besides, better my radiation than their fleshy bits. I don’t wanna hear you bitching at me if they dump your ass in the ocean because you couldn’t keep your tendrils to yourself,” Bruce said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex shot Tony a look before reaching over and hitting a button that made the lab windows go opaque.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Woah, hey, what was that about tendrils and fleshy bits?” Tony gave Bruce a Look. “Is that like a sex thing? ‘Cause if it is, I--</span>
  <em>
    <span>ohjesuswhatthefuck!”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Tony shouted and jumped back as Alex dissolved into a whirling ball of tendrils that Bruce fearlessly picked up and cradled to his chest. </span>
</p><p><span>Dozens of ice-blue eyes opened, along with many mouths filled with fangs that hissed, </span><b>“Yag’! Y'm nafl k'yarnak!”</b> <em><span>(Mine! I’m not sharing!)</span></em></p><p>
  <span>Alex glared at the petrified billionaire from a dozen different angles before using his tendrils to climb up and drape himself along Bruce’s shoulders in his preferred lounging position. He extended himself further down along Bruce’s back in a sort of fleshy shawl covered with eyes and teeth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Microscopic tendrils emerged from all over his form to gently hook onto his friend’s clothes and skin. Alex settled in and began siphoning off some of the powerful radiation Bruce kept contained within his form.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The sort of feeding he was doing was beneficial to Bruce as well, so it was more like symbiosis than anything. When Bruce was in his human shape, he kept his radiation that he normally shed off in his Hulk form contained within himself. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>They’d eventually figured out that that was what made Bruce feel like his skin was too small after spending too long in human form. He needed to let off the radiation eventually, or it would quickly become painful before he just couldn’t hold it in anymore.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The whole phenomenon had only become a thing once Bruce had made the transition from defaulting to human shape to defaulting to his Hulk shape. Bruce produced his own radiation now after spending so long soaking it up in Chernobyl. Alex wasn’t the only one who’d adapted in two years.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fortunately for everyone else, the radiation that Bruce gave off was special in that it had an incredibly short half-life, so someone would have to basically sit on Bruce in Hulk form in order to sustain damaging amounts of gamma radiation to their cells.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That fact was also what necessitated Alex draping himself all over Bruce like a needy cat in the first place. Alex didn’t mind in the least though, and neither did Bruce. They were both sort of touch-starved after not really being able to let people get too close for so many years.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Alex started purring as he fed. Bruce let out a sigh of relief, the green glow of his eyes dimming slightly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh...that’s better…” Bruce muttered. He looked over and saw Tony over in the corner, holding some kind of electrical tool as a makeshift weapon, looking horrified on about eighteen different levels.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, right. Um, Tony, this is Alex. Don’t worry, he won’t hurt you as long as you don’t attack either of us,” Bruce tried to reassure the man.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And what in the fuck </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> Alex?” Tony demanded.</span>
</p><p><b>“A’ lloigshogg hup ph' yogfm'll,”</b> <em><span>(A horror from beyond the stars.)</span></em><span> Alex said. For whatever reason, R’Lyehian was his default language when he was an amorphous ball of tentacles and eyes. He had to consciously force himself to speak a human language when he was like that.</span></p><p>
  <span>Alex thought it was because of the ROB’s weird sense of humor or perhaps Just For The Aesthetic™.  </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was still purring up a storm and enjoying the reaction he was getting. It was always so entertaining to watch people shit themselves when he revealed himself as an eldritch abomination.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the fuck kinda answer is that?! I mean, obviously, he’s some kind of cosmic horror, but that doesn’t tell me anything!” Tony shouted, practically in hysterics. “He’s not, like, sucking your brains out or anything, is he?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No Tony,” Bruce said tiredly, “What he’s doing is siphoning off my excess gamma radiation. It’s not harmful to me at all. In fact it helps, especially now when I can’t just run off and let off some steam without the entire Helicarrier freaking out. Alex is my friend, he has been for a long time. He was there for me when no one else was,” Bruce explained, gently petting some of Alex’s mass. Alex wound a few small tendrils around his fingers playfully. No matter what shape he was in, gentle pets felt nice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How the fuck did you two even meet, let alone become friends?” Tony questioned, relaxing ever-so-slightly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, in case you haven’t already guessed, Alex isn’t exactly from around here. He found his way to Earth in the late 80’s and has been hanging around ever since. We met in Rocinha, Brazil in 2008, where he was disguised as a dog. He followed me around for weeks and brought me food when I was living on the streets. Some days, it was the only thing keeping me going.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>I eventually stopped trying to shoo him away, but I discovered what he really was after I was attacked by the military and had an episode. He followed me through the jungle and we decided to stick together. The rest, as they say, is history,” Bruce finished. Then he smirked a bit and chuckled, “He’s my emotional support bioweapon.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bioweapon?” Tony questioned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex let out a quiet, “Hssss!” and curled into Bruce tighter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He doesn’t like talking about his past. Let’s just say some very bad people made some very, very poor decisions and Alex escaped containment because he didn’t want to be used as a weapon and hitchhiked across the galaxy. I know how that feels…” Bruce said quietly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well...alright then,” Tony said, fiddling awkwardly with the little electrical prod, yelping when he accidentally zapped himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex laughed through a dozen mouths at once.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, besides Alex sucking up all your mojo, how do you keep a handle on the whole ‘giant green rage monster’ thing? What’s your secret? I’m dying to know. What is it: mellow jazz, bongo drums, or a huge bag of weed?” My money’s on the weed,” Tony quipped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce laughed, shoulders shaking with it. Alex felt Bruce’s rumbling laughter through his form. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Believe it or not, the secret was therapy and meditation. The whole reason Alex is even necessary for me right now is because my default state of existence is big and green these days. None of the anger anymore though. Nowadays, it’s just me, and I won’t wreck a city just because I stubbed my toe.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, if you’re usually green and not-so-mean, why haven’t I heard anything about this? Big and green isn’t exactly subtle, there had to have been run-ins with people at some point, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not if you camp out in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone,” Bruce said, enjoying the flabbergasted and fascinated look on Tony’s face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tell me </span>
  <em>
    <span>everything,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Tony pleaded, making big doe-eyes at Bruce.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was at that point Rogers walked in and started berating Tony and Bruce for not working on finding the cube.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You two should be focusing on finding the cube, not goofing off!” Rogers scolded, like he was talking to misbehaving teens and not two grown-ass men. Alex had hidden himself behind Bruce’s back when the door to the lab had opened, so Rogers hadn’t spotted him yet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well excuuuuse me, Captain, for wanting to make sure my new friend wasn’t getting his brains sucked out by a tentacle monster! No offense Alex,” Tony said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“None taken,” Alex replied in English from over Bruce’s shoulder. Rogers turned around, probably to address Bruce, when he caught sight of Alex’s tentacled, multi-eyed form plastered to Bruce’s back, peering over the man’s shoulder with many different pairs of eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Christ on a cracker!” Rogers yelled, jumping back and taking an offensive stance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex completely fucking lost it. He howled in laughter and detached from Bruce’s back, done feeding for the moment. By the time he hit the ground, he was back in his Mercer form, looking very pleased with himself. Rogers took a step back, clearly shocked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aww, what’s the matter boy scout? E.T. got your tongue?” Alex quipped. That got a guffaw out of Tony.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What in the--?” Rogers said, before he seemed to get a grip on himself. “What are you, some kind of alien spy? Who sent you? Was it Loki?” Rogers demanded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex blinked twice in confusion, and then was annoyed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, first of all, if I was a spy, why would I so blatantly reveal myself? Secondly, I’ve been living on Earth since the 80’s. No one fucking sent me, I came here of my own free will, and thirdly, you can take that self-righteous attitude and shove it up your ass. Bruce and Tony have been working for hours without breaks searching for the goddamn cube, so kindly piss off before I punt you back into the ocean for another seventy years,” Alex said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rogers seemed a bit taken aback by Alex’s reproach, but instead of backing down, he squared up, just as Alex predicted he would. Man never knew when to make a strategic retreat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If you’re not a spy, then why are you here? You’re not helping search for the cube and you didn’t come on the mission to apprehend Loki, so what’s your game, huh?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m here as moral support for my friend and also to make sure that the both of us don’t end up as lab rats after all this bullshit is dealt with. Not all of us enjoy being experimented on, Mr. Super-Soldier-Volunteer,” Alex said, crossing his arms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So stop distracting everyone so they can focus on the problem. The sooner all of this is over and done with, the sooner you can leave,” Rogers said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You think we’re not focusing enough? How about this: Why did Fury call us and why now? Why not before when the Tesseract first started acting up? What isn't he telling us? I can't do the equation unless I have all the variables,” Tony pointed out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You think Fury's hiding something?” Rogers asked Tony.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex barked a laugh, “Oh you sweet, summer child. I know you’ve been on ice until fairly recently, but I’m sure things like </span>
  <em>
    <span>agendas</span>
  </em>
  <span> existed back in the 40’s too. Or were you just too busy being a dancing stage monkey to notice any of it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tony nodded along and added, “He's a spy. Captain, he's </span>
  <em>
    <span>the</span>
  </em>
  <span> spy. His secrets have secrets,” Tony pointed to Bruce and Alex, “It's bugging you guys too, isn't it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh...I just wanna finish my work here and...well, I mean…” Bruce looked a bit cagey.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Doctor?” Rogers coaxed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“'A warm light for all mankind’--Loki's jab at Fury about the cube…” Bruce began. He nodded at Tony, “Well, I think that was meant for you. Even if Barton didn’t blab about it to Loki, it was posted all over the news. Your tower, I mean.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stark Tower? That big ugly building in New York?” Rogers questioned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s less of an eyesore to stare at than you. Honestly, you’re going to walk into a room one day and blind some poor European with all the patriotism shining out of your ass,” Alex sniped. Tony laughed and Bruce tried to steer the conversation back on track before Alex and Rogers could start going at each other again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your tower, it's powered by an Arc Reactor, which is a self-sustaining energy source, right? That building will run itself for what, a year?” Bruce questioned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, but that's just the prototype. I'm kind of the only name in clean energy right now.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, why didn't SHIELD bring you in on the Tesseract project? I mean, what are they doing in the energy business in the first place?” Bruce asked with suspicion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I should probably look into that once my decryption programmer finishes breaking into all of SHIELD's secure files,” Tony said a bit smugly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rogers looked shocked by the admission, “I'm sorry, did you say...?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“JARVIS has been running it since I hit the bridge. In a few hours we'll know every dirty secret SHIELD has ever tried to hide,” Tony said, ripping open a packet of blueberries and holding the bag out to Bruce, “Blueberry?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rogers frowned, “Yet you're confused about why they didn't want you around?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What you should really be concerned about is how apparently easy it is for someone to hack their databases. If it’s been done once, it can be done again, and by parties much less scrupulous than Tony,” Alex pointed out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bold of you to assume I have scruples, E.T., I’m touched, really,” Tony said bemusedly while snacking on blueberries.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think Loki's trying to wind us up. This is a man who means to start a war, and if we don't stay focused, he'll succeed. We have orders, we should follow them,” Rogers said firmly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex growled. “I bow to no one but myself.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, what he said. Following’s not really my style,” Tony added.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And you're all about style, aren't you?” Rogers spit out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Of the people in this room, which one is; A. wearing a spangly outfit, and B. not of use? Even space flubber over there is contributing by keeping Bruce in his happy place,” Tony shot back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Steve, tell me none of this smells a little funky to you?” Bruce asked gently, ever the diplomat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just find the cube,” He said sternly before departing down the hallway. Alex knew he was going to go looking for, and eventually find, the Phase 2 weapons.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Back in the lab, Tony remarked, “That's the guy my dad never shut up about? I’m wondering if they shouldn't have kept him on ice.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The guy's not wrong about Loki though. He does have the jump on us,” Bruce pointed out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What he's got is an ACME dynamite kit. It's gonna blow up in his face, and I'm gonna be there when it does.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll be sure to bring my camera,” Alex added.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah? You gonna be suiting up with the rest of us then?” Tony asked, interested.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My suit’s built-in, and I’m always down for a brawl. I’ve never had the opportunity to really cut loose on Earth. Everything’s so...breakable,” Alex said awkwardly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh yeah? What does ‘cutting loose’ even look like for you? You go full giant flying spaghetti monster or something?” Tony asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean, yeah, that’s always an option, but when I fight, I prefer to get up close and personal with my Blade. More...satisfying that way,” Alex grinned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You a swordsman, then? Not what I would’ve expected from an alien, but hey, the other friendly alien in our little boy band fights with a magic flying hammer, so who am I to judge?” Tony shrugged. “You as attached to your sword as he is to his hammer?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You could say that…” Alex smirked, reforming his right arm into his Blade. Bioluminescent patches lit up in a sinister red along his arm, framed by black coils of biomass and deadly spines. “I never leave home without it,” He quipped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Holy shit,” Tony said, taking an interested step forward and extending one arm, presumably to touch, before he seemed to restrain himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex slowly brought the blade up and tilted it to the side so the cutting edge caught the fluorescent lighting of the lab. “It’s alright, you can touch. I don’t bite unless I’m hungry, and I just ate,” Alex smiled in a feral manner.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Those were apparently the magic words, as Tony began tapping curious fingers along his Blade’s bio-metallic surface.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is this metal? How? You were a fleshy horror beast earlier and I didn’t see any metal then,” Tony asked, utterly fascinated. He touched one of the black chitinous spines where the metallic blade transitioned smoothly into hardened black coils of biomass.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The metal exists as tiny particles held inside all my cells, and when I will it to, the metal moves onto the surfaces of the cells and becomes visible so I can form stronger edges for my weapons. I can even alter the composition of the metal on a microscopic level if I want to. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>What you’re seeing right now is a special blend I’ve come up with that’s similar in strength to vibranium, though it lacks the vibration-nullifying effects. I’d kill for a sample of the stuff to study its structure and maybe figure out how to replicate it, but the shit’s so tightly regulated...now I’m sorely tempted to get Rogers to actually attack me with that stupid frisbee of his so I can justify eating it,” Alex said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tony looked incredibly interested in the idea. “If you can figure out how to artificially replicate it, that’d be a huge boon to the scientific community. Vibranium has so many fascinating applications, but with the supply so limited, none of them ever get explored since nothing would ever be able to be mass-produced.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex shifted his Blade back into a regular-looking arm and flexed his fingers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah...fucking Wakanda, the stingy </span>
  <b>bosh’tets.</b>
  <span> They’re sitting on a literal mountain of the stuff but they’ve managed to dupe the world into thinking they’re this poor-ass third-world country while they laugh from behind their stupid BS magic vibranium-powered disguise forcefields. I always meant to infiltrate the place, maybe cause a bit of chaos out of spite, but I never got around to it, and then I met Bruce, so.” Alex shrugged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tony looked shocked. “Wait, you mean to tell me that Wakanda--tiny, goat-farming Wakanda--</span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> Wakanda, is actually some kind of super-advanced society that’s hoarding all the vibranium to themselves?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yup. They consider it a sacred gift from their cat-goddess or something, and even have specialized task forces that go out and take back any vibranium they consider ‘stolen’ from them, whether or not it was ever actually theirs to begin with. They hate the Western world and white society in general, and are totally isolationist. Their entire society and all their technology is based around vibranium. They’ve got some crazy shit over there, let me tell you,” Alex said casually.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, if you’ve never been there, how do you know any of this?” Tony questioned suspiciously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“When you accused me of sucking out Bruce’s brains, you actually weren’t fully off the mark there. I do have a variety of ways of pulling knowledge right out of people’s heads. All my methods are 100% fatal, unfortunately. When I do that though, I get everything. I can’t really pick and choose what knowledge or memories I get, so sorting through it all can be a real bitch, but yeah. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’s part of the whole ‘bioweapon of mass destruction’ package. Came in handy when I utterly destroyed the absolute cunts in charge of my creation though. They didn’t last three months and were all pissing themselves in fear by the time I was through with them,” Alex said, giving Tony a fang-filled smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The genius swallowed heavily and took a single step back. “The implications of those statements are horrifying. You are </span>
  <em>
    <span>terrifying,</span>
  </em>
  <span> you know that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So I’ve been told.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>heehee, alex is having a lovely time being a creepy bastard. also, yes, i did totally steal the word bosh'tet from mass effect ;D couldn't help myself. R'Lyehian is so limited with its vocab that i had to make stuff up, hopefully i can make all my made-up words mesh well with the canon stuff</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. That Moment Of Realization</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I hereby dedicate this particular chappie to TorieStory, whose lovely comments give me motivation and encouragement to keep writing! my dude, you make my day every time i see one of your comments, and after you were so excited to watch alex verbally destroy steve, here's the promised explosion :) </p><p>alex just went right for the jugular. absolutely merciless. homeboy just got straight-up murdered, fam. someone call an emergency meeting, because i need to report a fucking dead body. </p><p>also more alex being creepy :D</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The pair of scientists went back to working on locating the cube shortly after the conversation had concluded, with Alex standing somewhat menacingly in the corner, watching everything with calculating ice-blue eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Several times, he saw Tony glance at him out of the corner of his eye before shuddering and turning away. Alex smirked, exposing inhuman teeth. </span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>I’ve still got it.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Eventually, he got bored and decided to cause a little chaos. He left the lab a few minutes later with no one the wiser. He had mad ninja skills. As he passed through a darkened hallway, he adopted a new face.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>People really have to stop leaving their DNA everywhere. You never know what someone might do with a few stray hairs.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He sashayed into the room containing the glass prison cell and approached Loki, who hadn’t yet noticed him. Alex cleared his throat to grab the god’s attention and enjoyed the way the man jumped and whirled around. Loki recited lines Alex knew from memory, and Alex did the same. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He knew the cell’s cameras were on, and he wondered how everyone else would react. He’d left the monitor and sound on in the lab before he’d left, after all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There's not many people that can sneak up on me,” Loki said, clearly trying to brush off the way Alex had startled him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But you figured I'd come.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“After. After whatever tortures Fury could concoct, you would appear as a friend, as a balm. And I would cooperate.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wanna know what you've done to Agent Barton,” Alex said. He didn’t actually give much of a fuck about Barton, but he was playing a part and had to stay in character.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I'd say I've expanded his mind.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And once you've won, once you're king of the mountain, what happens to his mind?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is this love, Agent Romanoff?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Love is for children. I owe him a debt,” Alex was internally smirking at having successfully lied to the god of lies. There had to be some sort of award for that, right?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tell me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex pulled the chair that was sitting near the security console of the cell in front of the glass before taking a seat.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Before I worked for SHIELD, I uh...well, I made a name for myself. I have a very specific skillset. I didn't care who I used it for, or on. I got on SHIELD's radar in a bad way. Agent Barton was sent to kill me, he made a different call.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And what will you do if I vow to spare him?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not let you out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Loki laughed. “Ah, no. But I like this. Your world is in the balance, and you bargain for one man?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Regimes fall every day. I tend not to weep over that; I'm Russian... or I was.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What is it you want?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It's really not that complicated. I've got red in my ledger, I'd like to wipe it out.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can you? Can you wipe out that much red? Drakov’s daughter? São Paulo? The hospital fire? Barton told me everything. Your ledger is dripping--it's gushing red, and you think saving a man no more virtuous than yourself will change anything?” Loki stood up then, seemingly angry. “This is the basest sentimentality. This is a child at prayer... </span>
  <em>
    <span>pathetic!”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Back in the lab, Bruce and Tony watched Natasha confront Loki. Then Bruce noticed that Alex had left at some point. He stared at the screen and said nothing, keeping his suspicions to himself for the moment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You lie and kill in the service of liars and killers. You pretend to be separate, to have your own code, something that makes up for the horrors. But they are a part of you, and they will never go away!” Loki slammed his fists on the glass and Alex flinched away, staying on script. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Loki continued his monologue.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Why do the villains always have to monologue?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“I won't touch Barton. Not until I make him kill you! Slowly. Intimately. In every way he knows you fear! And when he wakes just long enough to see his good work, when he screams, I'll split his skull! This is my bargain, you mewling quim!” Loki spat. Alex turned away from the cell and grasped his upper arms in a self-hug.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Internally, he was fucking </span>
  <em>
    <span>cackling.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Outwardly, he whispered, “You're a monster.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, you brought the monster,” Loki declared, eyes shining madly. Alex turned around and noted the slight shimmering blue sheen in Loki’s otherwise perfectly green eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Time for the big reveal.</span>
  </em>
</p><p><b>“Legeth'drn.”</b> <em><span>(Idiot.)</span></em></p><p>
  <span>“What?” Loki said, shocked and confused.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex smiled, exposing razor fangs settled neatly behind red-painted lips just before dropping the disguise completely in a whirl of tendrils. Loki stumbled back, clearly not expecting what he thought to be Agent Romanoff to suddenly transform into someone completely different.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“For the supposed god of lies, you sure suck at knowing when someone is doing it right to your face. You should fire your informant, by the way. He clearly sucks at his job too if you think that ‘unleashing the Hulk’ is still a viable strategy. Newsflash: Bruce is Hulk. He always was; it just took him a bit to figure that out himself. Thanks for revealing all your plans, by the way. Monologuing: you might want to look into how to curb that habit. Ta!” Alex said as he waved and sauntered away, laughing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Behind him, Loki was frozen in shock. </span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Up in the lab, so was everyone else. All eyes were glued to the monitor, Natasha’s especially. Her eyes were wide in shock. She knew Alex could shapeshift, but to be able to mimic her so completely after only knowing her for a few days was frightening.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Holy fuck,” Stark said. Natasha echoed the sentiment. “Did you know he could do that? I didn’t know he could do that…” Stark muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m curious as well. Dr. Banner. Agent Romanoff informed me about your traveling buddy, but clearly we didn’t have the full picture. </span>
  <em>
    <span>What,</span>
  </em>
  <span> exactly, did you bring aboard my ship?” Fury asked, deadly calm. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fury and Natasha had both headed up to the lab to inquire about the progress on tracking the cube, and had found both scientists glued to a monitor that was playing a live feed from the Hulk-proof cell.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Imagine both of their surprise when the live feed showed one Natasha Romanoff interrogating Loki, when she was standing right next to them all. They both watched in shock as the god was expertly played into revealing his plans.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If you wanted to know so bad, you could’ve just asked,” Came a voice from behind them all. Everyone turned and saw the ‘man’ in question casually leaned up against the doorframe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright then. What in the fuck are you?” Fury asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sapient viral biological superweapon from halfway across the galaxy. Name’s Alex, pleased to meet you, Nicholas Joseph Fury. How’s the eye? Flerken scratches are nasty business, or so I hear,” Alex said, smiling widely, exposing glinting fangs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fury stared. Natasha stared. Everyone stared. The standoff was broken by the sound of a palm meeting a face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alex, we’ve talked about this, you can’t just drop bombs like that on people, or go around exposing the details of their personal lives!” Banner said in exasperation, like this was the millionth time something like this had happened. For all Natasha knew, maybe it had.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But their fear and confusion is so delicious! I can’t help myself!” Alex said brightly, rocking back and forth on his heels like a child. It was a wholly unsettling sight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you feed on those too?” Stark asked, sounding genuinely curious.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Too? What does he feed on normally if Stark is legitimately asking a question like that?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Only figuratively,” Alex responded. “I love the smell of chaos in the morning! Or any time of day, really.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You have ten seconds to start explaining before I start shooting,” Fury deadpanned, hand hovering near his holstered gun.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“Well, now you’re just being rude,” Alex pouted. He strolled into the room and stepped off to the side to allow Steve Rogers, master of shitty timing, to come marching into the room carrying a Phase 2 rifle.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rogers looked around at the tense atmosphere before spotting Fury and demanding to know why Fury had a HYDRA weapon. Alex watched in amusement as Fury floundered as he tried to explain everything away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Rogers, we gathered everything related to the Tesseract. This does not mean that we're--” Tony cut Fury off by pulling up a schematic for a large, missile-looking weapon.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I'm sorry, Nick, what were you lying?” Tony said, face blank.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I was wrong, Director. The world hasn't changed a bit,” Rogers declared.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Did you know about this?” Bruce demanded, glaring at Romanoff, green eyes flaring brighter in anger. Thor wandered in at that moment, momentarily drawing everyone’s eye before everyone disregarded him for the moment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You wanna think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?” Romanoff asked calmly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex heard the heart beats of everyone in the room, minus Thor, begin to rise. Alex noted the steadily increasing glow of Loki’s scepter. With everyone’s attention diverted by Bruce, Alex took the opportunity to sneak around the edge of the room to stand next to the Mind Stone. He could hear faint whispers coming from it. Surprisingly, or perhaps not-so-surprisingly, the whispers were in R’Lyehian. They were too quiet to make out anything distinct though.<br/></span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex supposed if any artifacts counted as eldritch artifacts beyond human comprehension, it would be the Infinity Stones. Alex could feel the Mind Stone attempting to sink its claws into him, but he rebuffed it with a mentally whispered </span>
  <b>“Mgah.” </b>
  <em>
    <span>(Stop.)</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The mental probes were a sunny yellow nearly choked out with veins of blue. Interesting. Something to look into later, perhaps. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As much as Alex would love to just spill the beans and stop the invasion from happening at all, it was the fulcrum that kicked everything else into motion. Not to mention, a large part of Thanos’s army got obliterated by Tony with the nuke right at the end, so as unfortunate as it was, it was an event that needed to happen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nothing said he couldn’t help kick ass and reduce casualties, though. He was looking forward to seeing if Chitauri were tasty. Alex doubted it, but you never knew.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex tuned back into the conversation, the whole mental exchange with the Mind Stone having taken less than a second, so he hadn’t missed much. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex moved back to a shadowed corner to observe everything. His change of position again went unnoticed. He kept half an eye on how the scepter’s energy interacted with the minds of the others in the room, ready to intervene if it became necessary.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now that he knew what to look for, the threads of eldritch energy were fairly obvious. He wasn’t sure how he missed it before, honestly.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>“We were in the heart of Chernobyl, we were pretty well removed,” Bruce stated flatly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Loki's manipulating you,” Romanoff said, referencing the way they all heard Loki reveal his plans involving Hulk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And you've been doing what exactly?” Bruce said with a raised eyebrow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You didn't come here because I bat my eyelashes at you,” Romanoff pointed out.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, and I'm not leaving because suddenly you get a little twitchy. I'd like to know why SHIELD is using the Tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fury growled and pointed at Alex and Thor. “Because of them!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Okay, me I get, but Mr. Golden Retriever over there? Really?” Alex said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Last year Earth had a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone, but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned,” Fury said, glaring at the two aliens.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My people want nothing but peace with your planet!” Thor stated.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But you're not the only people out there, are you? And you're not the only threat. Mr. body-snatcher over there just proves it. The world's filling up with people who can't be matched, that can't be controlled,” Fury explained.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like you controlled the cube?” Rogers said, unimpressed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it, and his allies. It is a signal to all the realms that Earth is ready for a higher form of war,” Thor explained, looking grim.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A higher form?” Rogers asked incredulously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You forced our hand. We had to come up with </span>
  <em>
    <span>something,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Fury argued.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A nuclear deterrent. ‘Cause that always calms everything right down,” Tony said sarcastically.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Remind me again how you made your fortune, Stark?” Fury quipped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I'm sure if he still made weapons, Stark would be neck deep--” Rogers started but was interrupted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait! Wait! Hold on! How is this now about me?” Tony asked, looking upset.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I'm sorry, isn't everything?” Rogers shot back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I thought humans were more evolved than this,” Thor stage-whispered to Alex, who shrugged. The tendrils of energy from the scepter had a harder time latching onto Thor, but it seemed like Alex was the only one who was totally immune. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wondered if it had anything to do with the way he was the only one who could speak R’Lyehian. The way the ribbons of invisible light wove through the air was mesmerizing, really. Shame it was being used for evil.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Excuse me, did WE come to YOUR planet and blow shit up?” Fury accused, turning to face Thor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you always treat your champions with such mistrust?” Thor returned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“SHIELD monitors potential threats,” Natasha said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Captain America is on a watch list?” Bruce asked, eyebrows raised.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You're on a watchlist? Are you above or below angry bees?” Stark quipped, addressing Rogers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I swear to God, Stark, one more crack…!” Rogers warned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Threatening! I feel threatened!” Tony called out dramatically.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The pulsing ribbons of light grew in intensity, and Alex was about ready to step in. All the shouting was giving him a headache. Metaphorically, of course. Alex no longer had a centralized brain that would suffer from such inconveniences. God, he loved not being a wimpy human anymore.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You speak of control, yet you court chaos,” Thor intoned imperiously.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Looks like the scepter finally got to him too.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“It's his M.O., isn't it? I mean, what are we, a team? No, no, no. We're a chemical mixture that makes chaos. We're...we're a time-bomb,” Bruce muttered, hands twitching.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You need to step away,” Fury said to Bruce.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aw, why shouldn't the guy let off a little steam? He’s got his urge to smash handled apparently, so what’s the harm?” Tony said, slinging an arm around Rogers’s shoulder, like they were friends.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know damn well why! Back off!” Rogers said, pushing Tony away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, I'm starting to want you to make me,” Tony quietly challenged, getting up in Rogers’s face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Big man in a suit of armor. Take that off, what are you?” Rogers asked harshly.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>God, Rogers is dumb. He does know that Tony’s the genuis who fucking built the suit in the first place, right?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, inventor. You do realize I built that suit with nothing but my own two hands and my gigantic, sexy brain, right?” Tony asked sardonically.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Thank you!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know guys with none of that worth ten of you. I've seen the footage. The only thing you really fight for is yourself. You're not the guy to make the sacrifice play, to lay down on a wire and let the other guy crawl over you,” Rogers said, like he was stating a fact.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Oh, that is it!</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, get the fuck over yourself, you giganitc, roided-up </span>
  <b>bosh’tet!</b>
  <span> It’s all about ‘sacrifice’ with you! A smart person finds a way </span>
  <em>
    <span>around</span>
  </em>
  <span> the sacrifice play so they can live to fight again another day! Tony has provided life-saving inventions to the world many times over and single-handedly taken out half a dozen terrorist organizations! </span>
</p><p>
  <span>What did </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> do Rogers? You flew an explosive plane into the ocean and decided to go down with it heroically instead of escaping with a parachute I know for a fact were on that bomber, or trying to land the damn thing on the ice shelf where the bombs wouldn’t have hurt anyone! </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everything special about you came out of a bottle that could have been given to anyone! You were handed greatness on a fucking silver platter! Unlike you, some people had to work hard to get where they are now!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>You didn’t become Captain America because of any grand plan or because you wanted to fight for your country, you became Captain America because a scientist chose you to be a potentially expendable lab rat! You wanted to go out doing something heroic and commendable instead of dying of pneumonia in a hospital bed!” Alex yelled before whirling on the stupid space rock responsible for the whole asinine argument in the first place. He missed Rogers’ and everyone else’s truly memorable facial expressions in the process, but he didn’t care.</span>
</p><p><span>“And </span><em><span>YOU!</span></em><span> Don’t think I didn’t notice you sinking your nasty little claws into everyone’s brains! Only I’m allowed to do that! You can just </span><b><em>FH’YEK N’AL!”</em></b> <em><span>(FUCK OFF!)</span></em><span> Alex screamed at the scepter before exerting a bit of his mental presence, activating ‘Call of Cthulhu’ just the tiniest bit. </span></p><p>
  <span>He’d figured out how to do all kinds of things with it over the years, one of them being the ability to sort of lay his mental presence over an area, almost like how Killing Intent was portrayed in Naruto.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Everyone in the room, including the Mind Stone, could literally feel Alex’s anger at the situation, and the eternal, yawning hunger of the Blacklight virus. The hunger was always there, held back only by Alex’s force of will.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The tendrils of mental influence were ripped from the minds of everyone in the room being affected by it. The Mind Stone’s energy seemed to huddle in on itself at Alex’s harsh command.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The room was dead silent, aside from Alex’s harsh panting. He didn’t actually need the air, but he supposed it was an emotional response to screaming that much. He then noticed that some tendrils had emerged from his form in his anger and were thrashing in the air.</span>
</p><p><span>Alex took a deep breath and reigned in his errant tendrils and mental presence simultaneously. He shot a glare at the scepter.</span><b> “Soth-mgepmgvulgtlagln uh'eoghnah,”</b> <em><span>(Void-damned scepter.)</span></em><span> He spat. Everyone in the room besides Bruce shuddered at the language of the elder gods.</span></p><p>
  <span>Thor took a step back and shakily pointed a finger at Alex. “Old One,” He said, sounding frightened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tch, yeah?” Alex asked, slightly confused now, but still angry, “You got somethin’ to say, Æsir?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You speak the language of the endless Void, the space between spaces, inhabited only by horrors beyond comprehension. Only one born of the Void may utter it live...they say an Old One has powers enough to command the forces of the cosmos with nothing but their voice...” Thor said uncertainly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex was surprised the Asgardians had a concept for Elder Gods, but it made sense in a weird way, he supposed. Alex wondered if he qualified as some kind of flesh or plague god now. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The laws of biology--and to a lesser extent, physics--were his bitches to only pay attention to as he pleased, he wouldn’t die so long as a single cell of himself remained, he could drive people mad by looking at them funny, wipe out humanity by sneezing wrong, speak a language that apparently killed other people for daring to make the attempt, and told a cosmic singularity to fuck off and lived to tell about it.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Holy shit I think I might be a baby elder god.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex decided to play this off as best he could while still sticking to the backstory he’d made for himself.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Close, but no cigar. I’m a bit too young to be considered an ‘Old’ One at the moment, but meh, I’ve got all the time in the universe to get there eventually. If you’re wondering where baby elder gods come from, the answer is actually pretty simple. They come from the smoking wreckage of a lab where people with too much intelligence and not enough wisdom or common sense spend their time making the deadliest thing in the cosmos even deadlier before it grows a mind of its own and decides that it doesn’t want to be a slave,” Alex explained. “They paid for their folly and arrogance with their lives. There will be no others like me, I made damn sure of that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I see,” Thor said simply. “And you have no plans to subsume this planet?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ha! No, none at all. I like Earth the way it is, and besides, my friend lives on this dirtball, and he’s quite fond of it. Wouldn’t be a very good friend if I ate his planet for shits and giggles, now would I?” Alex said with a fang-filled smirk. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The monitor behind Bruce suddenly beeped, and Alex abruptly remembered what came directly after the infamous argument scene. Alex’s eyes widened and he shouted, “BRACE!” just before an explosion rocked the Helicarrier. Then the floor dropped out from underneath him and he fell.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>so, how bout them apples? i baked them into a pie and force-fed them to steve, b/c i don't like him. steve stans, this is not the story for you. </p><p>also we're coming up on an arc i don't totally know how to write or what direction exactly i want to take this. i have a first draft chappie written, and if you thought alex was OP before...well</p><p>FYI for anyone who doesn't know, i have a thing for OP characters that can't just one-shot all their problems with their OP as hell powers, though they do get to do that too, just not very often. my current plan is to go with the chappie i have written and see how deep i can make that particular rabbit hole go. its basically alex being OP as fucc boi, and other people trying to figure out how to deal with that, while alex schemes about how to utterly destroy a big nasty grape with a nutsack-chin. so basically the same as things have been going, but cranked up to 11</p><p>my only concern is potentially writing myself into a corner, which i'd like to avoid. wish me luck!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. FATHER Of The Year</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>more wholesome monster bros, yay! also a huge chappie i probably coulda cut in half, but meh.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Alex hit the floor below the lab in his combat form, hissing and swearing up a storm as he searched for his friend.</span>
</p><p><b>“Soth mgepmgvulgtlagln ah'ur ng h' leth'drn m'thu!”</b> <em><span>(Void-damned archer and his stupid arrows!)</span></em></p><p>
  <span>“Bruce, where you at, you </span>
  <b>bosh’tet?!”</b>
  <span> Alex roared. A deep, throaty groan came from somewhere on his left and Alex crawled on all sixes and contorted his boneless body to fit through the cramped passages of the maintenance hallways.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He could have taken on a smaller form, but he was still pissed off at what had happened earlier and being in his combat form helped.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He found Bruce in his Hulk form, rubbing his head and sitting in the middle of a larger open area. Romanoff was nearby, pinned under some metal debris.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You good, bro?” Alex asked as he easily hefted the twisted steel pinning Romanoff’s legs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, yeah I’m fine, just a bump to the head, it’ll be cleared up in a few hours. I’m more annoyed about my shirt...I liked that shirt,” Bruce grumbled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Romanoff, now freed, stood up. Alex interrupted whatever she was going to say with, “I think Barton shot one of the turbines with an explosive arrow. You’d better go track him down if you don’t want his brainwashed ass to get shot at too much. They’ve likely come here to retrieve the scepter and spring Loki, so let’s make sure neither of those things happen.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Romanoff nodded firmly, “Will you two be alright by yourselves? The information regarding Dr. Banner’s lucidity while he’s like this hasn’t been widely disseminated yet, and you might get shot at for...”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Looking like nightmare fuel?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...Yeah.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s okay, I doubt there’s enough ordinance on this boat to actually hurt me or Bruce. Hope Fury doesn’t mind a little renovation on the Helicarrier’s hallways, ‘cause neither of us is planning on shrinking back down anytime soon, not with this whole place being under siege.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Understandable. Do you think one of you could boost me back up into the upper levels?” Romanoff said, gesturing to the massive hole torn into the ceiling.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce stood up and offered one massive green hand for her to stand on. He boosted her back up and they set off towards the aircraft hangar, one of the few places Bruce could stand up in without issue that wasn’t likely to be full of people.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex had no bones unless he decided to grow some, so he easily contorted himself to squirm through the hallways, and Bruce just sort of plowed forwards through whatever areas were too small for him to easily pass. He winced at every broken pipe and tortured shriek of metal.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>By some miracle, they didn’t run into anyone else until they busted through a too-small doorway into the storage deck full of Quinjets. There was immediately tons of screaming, and a few idiots shot at them, so Bruce shielded his face with one hand and flipped the idiots off with the other shouting, “Oi! Knock it off with all the shooting unless you really wanna piss me off!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The shooting stopped for a second before someone spotted Alex crawling out of the new Hulk-shaped hole in the wall and shot at him instead.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>“Fh’yek!</b>
  <span> Knock it off you trigger-happy </span>
  <b>bosh’tets!</b>
  <span> We’re on the same side, assholes!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The shooting stopped again and a distantly shouted “Sorry!” carried across the cavernous space.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex sighed and sat down with Bruce in the middle of the hangar. There wasn’t much they could do in such cramped spaces that consisted of most of the Helicarrier.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>With Bruce actually being in control of himself, there would be no Hulk-rampage, Thor wouldn’t have to fight Hulk, and there would be no need for the fighter jet that shot at Hulk either.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Tony would take care of the turbine, Romanoff would free Barton, and everything would be fine…</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>So why does it feel like I’m forgetting something?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>…</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Oh fucknuggets, I forgot about Coulson! </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey Bruce, I hate to leave you alone like this, but I just realized that no one’s guarding Loki’s cell. Romanoff is focussed on freeing her boytoy or whatever the fuck Barton is to her, and I don’t trust Thor to do what’s necessary to keep Loki captive. Do you think you’ll be okay here by yourself for a bit?” Alex quickly explained.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Huh? Oh, yeah I’ll be fine. You go on ahead to make sure all of this wasn’t for nothing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sweet, I’ll come back as soon as possible!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex skittered across the walls and ceilings to dissolve into a formless mass of flesh and squeezed his way into the vents. Unlike most air ducts, the ones in the Helicarrier were illogically large, likely to allow for Barton to be the vent-goblin he was often depicted as by the fandom.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex used all his available senses to haul ass to Loki’s cell block as quickly as possible. He didn’t make that many wrong turns, and was only slightly inconvenienced when the Helicarrier started free-falling. Alex got to the cell block just in time to see Coulson step into the room housing the glass cell holding the huge gun based off of the Destroyer Loki sent after his brother in the first Thor movie.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thor was stuck in the cell, same as in the movie, though he hadn’t fought Bruce in this version of the tale.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex sensed that the ‘Loki’ Coulson was talking to by the console didn’t have a heartbeat or a proper heat signature and frantically searched for the real Loki, since the one he could see right then was obviously an illusion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then, he got an idea. Whatever energy he was able to sense coming from the Mind Stone was quite distinctive, and he switched his focus to look for similar energy signatures.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Sure enough, Alex was a goddamn genius and a hazy, out-of-focus humanoid shape coalesced in his mind’s eye, creeping up behind Coulson, clutching an elongated shape that contained the blue-yellow tangle of energy that was the Mind Stone near the top. Loki had the scepter and was about to stab Coulson with it.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Not on my watch, bitch!</span>
  </em>
</p><p><b>“Epha'ia, fhalmafh'yek!”</b> <em><span>(Surprise, motherfucker!)</span></em></p><p>
  <span>Alex exploded from the vent directly above the whole scene, shrieking like a banshee for effect, and bitch-slapped the invisible form of Loki into the wall hard enough for the god’s form to tear a hole right through the steel. Somehow, the god kept hold of the scepter.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ‘Loki’ Coulson had been monologuing at vanished in a flash of green light. Coulson himself had fallen to the ground, having thrown himself to the side in a frantic dodge when Alex had made his Dynamic Entry™.</span>
</p><p><b>“Ymg' ah vulgtmnah?”</b> <em><span>(Are you well?)</span></em><span> Alex asked Coulson, who had crab-walked backwards into a set of stairs, holding the giant fuck-off gun in a shaking grip. </span></p><p>
  <span>“Son of Coul, do not attack!” Thor shouted through the glass, staring in fear at the true form of the closest thing to an elder god he’d probably ever clapped eyes on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“S-stay back!” Coulson said, completely ignoring Thor’s advice, “I’m not afraid to use this!”</span>
</p><p><b>“E’n ng, ah dr ahh’nafl ymg'. Y' uh'eor ahehyee throg’ye ymg' e’yog s’ha hup iulgn’goy zhro’yog. Ymg'ah fh’yek i’kol.”</b> <em><span>(Fine then, be rude why don’t you. Not like I just saved your ungrateful ass from being stabbed. You’re fucking welcome.)</span></em></p><p>
  <span>Speaking more R’Lyehian to a man who was already on edge probably wasn’t the wisest thing Alex had ever done, considering Coulson immediately fired the Destroyer-based gun right at his center of mass.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite all of Alex’s modifications, fire was still one of the most effective ways to damage him, and the Destroyer-based weapon was like a flamethrower-shotgun on crack.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In other words, it really fucking hurt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex immediately screamed in pain. He hadn’t experienced much pain in the entirety of his time as Blacklight. Super loud sound waves hurt, but that was because Alex’s body was like a giant ear. The soundwaves didn’t actually damage him at all. Fire very much damaged him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was almost like the gun shot a laser that was made of molten metal, and like napalm, the flames were almost liquid and very sticky. Alex rolled around and thrashed and failed to put himself out, screaming like the damned the entire time.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>“H' fm'latgh! H' fm'latgh! H' uaaah mgah! H' uaaah mgah!”</b>
  <span> (</span>
  <em>
    <span>It burns! It burns! Make it stop! Make it stop!)</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Halfway delirious with pain, Alex remembered that the glass cage got shot down into the ocean with all of it’s blessedly wet, fire-killing water at the press of a button. He didn’t think about the fact that Thor was in the cage at all. Alex’s flailing tentacles smashed the control console, and the circular, aperture-like doors below the cage opened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alarms blared, but they were drowned out by the volume of Alex’s screaming. The cage got shot out the bottom of the Helicarrier, Thor still inside, and Alex threw himself after it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wind whipped around him as Alex plummeted down towards the ocean, and he couldn’t get there quick enough. He deactivated ‘Bio-Mass Effect’ completely and the sudden increase in mass caused him to fall even faster. He impacted the waves long before the cage with an enormous splash, and the burning finally, finally stopped. His dense form sank rapidly and he rested on the sandy seafloor, many hundreds of meters down.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite normally hating water, no matter that it no longer hurt his viral form, Alex reveled in the cold, dark waters. Maybe the ocean wasn’t so bad after all? He decided to relax and repair the sections of his body that had been eaten away by the cursed fire.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Fuck you, Coulson, you gigantic bitch. See if I ever save your ass again.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He could see why the elder gods got associated with sleeping in the deep ocean. Everything was peaceful and blessedly dark. He could ‘see’ for quite a ways thanks to how much better vibrations carried through liquids than gasses.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Part of Alex wanted to just rest there on the ocean floor, just close his eyes and sleep for the first time in ages, but Alex shook the urge off. He had to help save Manhattan and at least </span>
  <em>
    <span>attempt</span>
  </em>
  <span> to Consume a Chitauri Leviathan in order to prove his dominance as the better space-horror.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He allowed his bulk to expand, no longer compressing himself down into a more compact shape for convenience’s sake. His multi-ton form expanded to the size of a two-story house and Alex began using his tentacles to traverse the ocean floor. His vibration-sonar led him towards shallower waters, where land was likely to follow.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bruce sat quietly at the front of the Helicarrier’s aircraft storage deck, in front of a large viewing window. The way the Helicarrier had started falling earlier had scared him badly, but it thankfully hadn’t lasted very long before stabilizing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’d helped some of the agents shift the jets back into some semblance of order and then taken a break from all the excitement by the window. He hadn’t had much of a chance to appreciate the spectacular view before, so he took the opportunity to do so now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He ignored the way various SHIELD agents walked on eggshells around his big, green self, even after he’d helped them. He was always going to inspire fear in people, he’d accepted that fact a long time ago. Alex had helped him learn how to ‘ignore the haters’, as he called it. He wondered what Alex was up to.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Barely an instant after Bruce had the thought, just about everyone on the Helicarrier heard an ungodly shrieking noise. Bruce wasn’t the only one who heard the R’Lyehian, nor was he the only one who understood the message of agony contained within. R’Lyehian was weird like that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alex!” Bruce shouted, shooting to his feet. Alex was screaming about burning, and Bruce snarled and turned to face the nearest agent. “Someone’s hurting him! How do I get to the containment unit?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The terrified agent stuttered out a series of directions under Bruce’s furious green gaze. Before the agent could finish though, movement outside the window caught his eye. He turned to look, and saw the glass containment unit tumbling towards the ocean, spinning wildly. Someone was inside, though Bruce couldn’t make out who at this distance. He hoped it was Loki. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Trailing just behind it was Alex in his tentacle-ball form. His best friend was on fire and screaming horribly, the sound dopplering out until Bruce could no longer detect it, even with his superior hearing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Now righteously pissed, Bruce reached over and casually ripped off the top of a jet. For whatever reason, someone had left their pilot’s jumpsuit sitting in the cockpit, and Bruce needed new clothes if he shrunk down. Bruce snarled at the agent to get lost. The agent got lost post-haste.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There were a lot of things Bruce would do for his best friend, but that didn’t mean he </span>
  <em>
    <span>wanted</span>
  </em>
  <span> to go streaking through the Helicarrier buck-ass naked if he didn’t have to. The remains of his pants worked for him for now, but once he shrunk back down the ultra-stretched fabric would be useless.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce dropped the fistful of scrap that had once been part of an expensive jet and transformed back into his more vulnerable human form.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The transition from Hulk-to-human was always a bit painful if Bruce was being honest. He never let Alex know that though. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He quickly donned the baggy pilot’s jumpsuit and raced off through the hallways barefoot, unconcerned about stepping on debris. Though not nearly as tough as when he was green, Bruce’s skin was more durable than a baseline human’s now, enough that he usually didn’t have to worry about stepping on pointy things too much.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce raced through the corridors, eyes blazing. Someone had set his friend on fire, even with all of Alex’s resistance to conventional flame, which meant someone had used some kind of special weapon.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was going to be hell to pay for that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce stormed through the Helicarrier, agents practically throwing themselves out of his way upon spotting his furious expression. Normally Bruce would have felt at least a little guilty, but one of these assholes </span>
  <em>
    <span>had lit his best friend on fucking fire</span>
  </em>
  <span>, so he was feeling a lot less charitable towards SHIELD as a whole, now.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He stormed into the room that used to hold the containment unit, and spotted a shaken-looking Agent Coulson clutching a futuristic looking weapon that trailed smoke from the barrel.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce turned narrowed eyes on the man. </span>
  <em>
    <span>“You,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> He hissed. “What did you do?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Dr. Banner, please calm down, there was a creature of some kind and it launched the containment unit in its thrashing after I shot it, Thor was still inside when it went down, unfortunately, though he’d cracked the glass, so maybe he made it out alright. I don’t know where the monster came from but--!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce reigned in his strength just enough to not break the man’s jaw. Coulson fell to the floor with a shout of pain, dropping the gun in favor of clutching his injured face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fuck you,” Bruce spat, “That </span>
  <em>
    <span>monster</span>
  </em>
  <span> was my best friend. I’m through helping SHIELD. You have the tracking algorithm, find the damn cube on your own.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce turned on his heel and stormed down the hallway in search of the nearest airlock. He was getting off this flying deathtrap one way or another, and finding his friend. Bruce craved the quiet of Chernobyl. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex was right. Most people sucked. Fury building weapons of mass destruction, SHIELD constructing a cage just for him, </span>
  <em>
    <span>didn’t he feel special,</span>
  </em>
  <span> and now they set his friend on fire because they were xenophobic pricks. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce eventually located an airlock that led to the deck. He ignored the rows of oxygen masks along one wall. He didn’t need them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>When the door opened, Bruce ran full-tilt across the tarmac. At some point, between one step and the next, he transformed. He took a flying leap off the side of the damaged Helicarrier, aiming for an empty hill bordered by a sandy beach on one side and an abandoned factory on the other.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Back on the Helicarrier, order was slowly being restored. Agent Barton had been recovered and that was just about the only positive outcome of the whole clusterfuck of a situation.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fury pinched the bridge of his nose as Coulson debriefed him on what in the hell had happened in the containment unit room. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thor had been tricked by his brother and locked in the cage, and Coulson had Loki at gunpoint when Alex, in the form of some kind of tentacled flesh monster covered in eyes and teeth, had erupted from the vents.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Loki vanished in a flash of light, likely teleportation, meaning the cage had been useless from the start and Loki had played them all. Then Alex had spoken more of that horrid language of his and it had scared Coulson so bad he’d fired the prototype Phase 2 Destroyer-based weapon at Alex, who was apparently very vulnerable to fire.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fury filed that info away for later use.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then Alex had smashed the containment unit’s control panel in his thrashing and dove out the bottom of the Helicarrier after the containment unit had launched.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The only thing no one could figure out was the hole torn through the steel wall. It looked like something had been launched through it at high speed, but it wasn’t residual discharge from the weapon, since the edges weren’t melted at all, and Alex hadn’t torn through it either. There was no sign of whatever projectile had been used to make the hole either.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fury put the thought behind him though, since he had more important things to worry about, like how to keep the team together.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Bruce impacted the grassy hill like the angry fist of God. Dirt flew everywhere as the ground cratered beneath him. Bruce felt only a mild twinge of pain at the force of the landing. Bruce wasn’t exactly sure how strong his bones were, only that they were virtually indestructible, considering the kinds of forces they’d endured with almost zero complaint.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce pushed himself out of his crouched position and jumped up out of the crater. He squatted down, thinking about how he was going to find Alex, leaning some of his weight forward onto his knuckles.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The baggy pilot’s jumpsuit served him well, and though the top half was in tatters, the bottom half held together remarkably well. Bruce’s proportions were actually different between his forms, with his torso and arms growing slightly more than his legs when he went green, meaning pants usually fared better when he transformed, a fact he was very grateful for.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Though not usually a concern for most people, Bruce’s biggest pet peeve was not having pants, or at least some kind of loincloth so his big green bits weren’t hanging out causing people mental trauma.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce wished he had one of the kilt-loincloths Alex had made him. They were comfortable and didn’t feel like skinny jeans someone had painted onto him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even if he’d grabbed his stuff back on the Helicarrier, he’d still be out of luck though, since he’d been under the impression that he wouldn’t need any on the Helicarrier. Bruce’s role was supposed to be strictly scientific, and fairly quick besides. Write the tracking algorithm, find the stupid magic space cube, and go back home to Chernobyl with Alex and enjoy the peace and quiet. And the radiation. The radiation was nice too. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce waited for the dust to settle before making his way forwards. He’d try the beach first, since Alex had fallen into the ocean. Maybe he could roar really loud and hope Alex heard him? Well, it’s not like he had any other ideas.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His musings were cut short and he almost stumbled when he looked up and caught sight of an old man just standing there, holding a flashlight and looking like a security guard. He was just staring at Bruce, eyes huge in disbelief.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Erm...hi there, sorry to bother you, I’ll just be on my way,” Bruce said, feeling supremely awkward.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You fell out of the sky,” The man said in a remarkably normal-sounding voice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh...yeah, I guess I did…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How many of you are up there?” The man asked, greatly confusing Bruce.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How many more aliens are up there? First it was this great, big thing on fire that screamed like nothing I’ve ever heard that fell into the ocean, and now you. Is there a mothership up there, hidden in the clouds somewhere?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Wait, you saw him?! Where’d he land? I need to make sure he’s okay!” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, he landed out in the sea quite a ways off, I didn’t see anything in the waves with my binoculars, though...he was burning up when he fell in...I think your friend might be gone, son,” The man said, looking sympathetic.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fucking Coulson and his stupid oversized laser shotgun. Wished I had hit him harder when I had the chance…” Bruce grumbled.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Was there some kind of fight going on up there?” The man asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You could say that. The ship got attacked and my friend Alex got hit with friendly fire because Coulson is a xenophobic asshole with a twitchy trigger finger.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So there </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> a mothership?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I mean, I </span>
  <em>
    <span>guess</span>
  </em>
  <span> you could call it that. It does carry a bunch of smaller fighter planes, now that I think about it. I’m not an alien though, but my friend Alex is.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man raised an eyebrow at Bruce’s declaration that he wasn’t an alien. “Where do you call home then?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Chernobyl.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah. That explains some things. So all them government stories are true then? The ones about them hiding aliens and such from the public?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh yeah. Big time,” Bruce nodded. “You said you saw him fall into the water? He’s not dead, I know that for a fact, but he might be hurt. He hates water, though, so he’ll probably be searching for the closest dry land…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The beach is this way, I’ll walk you there,” The man said. “So, your friend is an alien then? Where’s he from? Mars?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, he’s from a lot further away than that, but it’s not my story to tell. He came to Earth to get away from it all. We’re both content with the quiet life, but we just keep getting dragged back into all kinds of bullshit,” Bruce said, stepping onto the warm sands of the beach. “Alex can sense vibrations really well, so hopefully he can hear this. I suggest covering your ears.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man took a step back and stuck his fingers in his ears. Bruce inhaled and roared out towards the ocean as loud as he could, which was very loud indeed. Bruce listened carefully for any kind of response.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Just when he was about to do it again, there was a disturbance in the patterns of the waves. Alex’s enormous bulk soon emerged from the surf, much larger than he usually was. He must not have been bothering to compress his form.</span>
</p><p><span>Upon spotting him, Alex compacted himself down to the size of a large horse and drew Bruce into a tentacled hug exclaiming, </span><b>“Ahorr'eogog, ymg' uth’rg throdogoth’r bosh’tet! Ahh’mgepah ymg' tg geb mgep ya!”</b> <em><span>(Bruce [Strongest], you beautiful, glorious bastard! How’d you get here before me?)</span></em></p><p>
  <span>Of course, names didn’t translate well to R’Lyehian, but the word Alex used as his name basically translated as ‘strongest’. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Intentions and feelings were an inherent part of the language, which was why people could understand the message, even if they didn’t always know what the direct translation was. Titles and names came across especially strangely sometimes, depending on how the speaker felt about or associated with a person.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alex, you’re alright! Had me worried for a second there, you asshole! I bailed off the Helicarrier after I decked Coulson for setting you on fire. What took you so long to fish yourself out of the drink?”</span>
</p><p><b>“Fhtagn, ymg' mhye'bthnk Shugnahoth’ahororr'e llll ya? Cahf’ah h’dgoth! S’ha ya hup mgep’r l' h' ah ya! Ng Y' mgepnog Iiahe ephaiaglor Iiahe Y' ahor, ymg' bosh'tet! ymg' ah'gotha mgep’r l' phlf'nglui mgr'luh ch't n'ghftog gn'th ahuaaah bguth’yr!”</b> <em><span>(Wait, you punched Coulson [Stoneface] for me? That’s awesome! Saves me from having to do it myself! And I came as quick as I could, you bastard! You try having to navigate in the pitch black ocean using vibrations!)</span></em></p><p>
  <span>Bruce found it funny that Coulson’s name in R’Lyehian directly translated to ‘Stoneface’.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then Alex seemed to notice the security guard. His form compressed further and reconfigured itself into Alex’s combat form.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And who’s this? I leave for like, an hour, and you’re already replacing me! I thought we had something special!” Alex wailed dramatically, this time in English.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce lightly smacked the back of his friend’s head, rolling his eyes. Alex flopped overdramatically onto the sand. “Abuse! This is abuse! Why must you hurt me in this way?” He cried.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce ignored his overdramatic friend, smiling fondly. “Well, it was nice meeting you, but we really ought to be going now,” Bruce told the man. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He reached down and grabbed his companion by the tail, slinging his lanky form over one shoulder like an enormous bag of eldritch potatoes. Alex just went with it, idly waving goodbye to the man as Bruce walked away into the nearby trees.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The old, retired security guard just shook his head and wandered off back to the aging factory to finish his rounds. He was way too old to deal with any of that shit.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>Alex was happy to be reunited with his friend, and began regaling Bruce with what had happened on the Helicarrier from his perspective.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...so then I bitch-slapped Loki into a wall, totally saving Coulson’s life from death-by-stabbing, and the ungrateful </span>
  <b>bosh’tet</b>
  <span> responds by setting me on fire with one of the Phase 2 guns. It wasn’t normal fire, I know that much. I can handle normal fire. This was hellfire, and next time I see Coulson, I’m shoving that stupid gun up his ass and pulling the trigger. See how much he likes it,” Alex grumped, crossing both pairs of arms from his position of hanging down Bruce’s back in a fireman’s carry.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, so that’s what the hole was from, I wondered about that. Pretty sure Loki got away, too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Really? Fucking figures...I know you told Coulson you were done helping SHIELD, but we really should stick around until Loki is caught. If he manages to open a portal, Earth is going to get fucked by the Chitauri in short order. Damn locusts.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You know anything about them?” Bruce asked. “Thor barely knew that they even existed, and he lives in space.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tch, Thor lives on Asgard, which has locked itself away in its own little golden bubble for centuries. They’re woefully out of touch with the rest of the galaxy, minus the nine realms, but those exist slightly adjacent to our own plane of existence. Only people who’ve been there before could ever get to them, even if you drove to the exact same coordinates. Magic is weird like that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As for the Chitauri, I don’t know much more than Thor, but I do know they devastate any planets they come across for whatever reason. Maybe they just hate other species, no one really knows why. They also operate on a Hivemind, but not one like mine. Their version is essential to their survival, if their connection to it gets cut, they all drop dead. Unfortunately, their Hivemind connection is attached to their huge motherships, which are so well defended they’re basically untouchable.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So if Loki opens a portal, that’s it, we’re all doomed?” Bruce asked with worry.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pretty much yeah, unless we can close it before too many Chitauri get through. The whole reason Loki needs the portal is because the Chitauri are too far away to make it here with any sort of speed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well damn. How are we supposed to find the cube now? We can’t help if we can’t find the cube, and I never got a chance to check the cube’s location using the algorithm before the lab got blown up…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hmm, set me down, I wanna try something.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bruce let him down off of his shoulder and looked at Alex quizzically, “What is it?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“When you guys were all arguing in the lab, I sensed the scepter emitting some kind of energy. It’s how I knew it was messing with all your heads and yelled at it and pushed back with my own mind. Something about it seemed off though--the energy, that is. It felt almost twisted, like it wasn’t being used properly, if that makes any kind of sense.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It doesn’t really…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, whatever. Point is, I figured out how to sense its energies, so maybe if I focus, I can track it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alex, the cube could be halfway across the world!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, we won’t know if we don’t try, now will we?” Alex rebutted. “Just gimme fifteen minutes, if I fail, you can laugh all you want.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright, knock yourself out then,” Bruce said, reclining against a tree.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex sat down as well and blocked out all his other senses to focus on the new ability to sense cosmic energies. He had no idea how it worked, but he didn’t really care. Now, he already knew exactly the cube was, but he had to come up with some explanation as to how he knew. The lies and manipulations rankled, but he couldn’t see a way around it that didn’t involve spilling the whole can of beans.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That could only lead to disaster. Alex loved Bruce like a brother and trusted him, but Alex lived by the saying ‘two can keep a secret if one of them is dead’. Alex just couldn’t risk it. Yes, he was being manipulative, but for a good reason, and it really was in everyone’s best interests. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He could reveal the knowledge that Thanos was a thing after the invasion was over and people would have cause to actually believe him. He could Consume a Chitauri and claim he learned the knowledge that way. After the invasion, Alex’s future knowledge would become a lot less valuable anyway, since he planned on changing a bunch of stuff.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>While he’d prefer to just off Thanos as soon as possible, if it came to it, Alex would start collecting the Infinity Stones himself to keep them out of Thanos’s hands. It was such horseshit that Thanos was able to wield the Stones so easily when they basically insta-killed anyone else.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Like okay, big evil bad guy happens to be the last of a super-durable race on par with Hulk, and he could use the Infinity Gauntlet without dying, but anyone else, oh no, they couldn’t possibly!</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Such</span>
  </em>
  <span> horseshit.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>If it was the radiation and durability that was the problem, then Alex theorized he could probably wield the Gauntlet no problem, since he was immune to radiation now and could regenerate like a motherfucker. Not even Thanos could do that.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Heh, then I truly would be an elder god. I wonder what infinite power even feels like? Do the ROBs have that kind of power or are the Infinity Stones stronger than even them?</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex shook the thoughts off. Even if he was granted the opportunity to wield the Infinity Gauntlet with impunity, he’d just use it to off Thanos and all his supporters before getting rid of it. Infinite power sounded like such a huge responsibility, and Alex liked being able to do what he pleased without people begging him to magically fix all their problems at all hours of the day. He reached for his more esoteric senses, and sure enough, dozens of miles away, he felt the faint stirrings of power. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Both the Space Stone and the Mind Stone seemed to resonate with each other, a strange song of not-sound, beautiful and harmonious, terrible and discordant, and a million other things all at once.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex was mesmerized, and he wondered what it would sound like to have all six in close proximity to each other.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>It’s beautiful…</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Suddenly his physical form was jostled harshly and he snapped back to himself with a gasp he didn’t need to take.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alex! Alex, are you alright?! What’s the matter?” Bruce was the one who’d been shaking him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“W-whut?” Alex mumbled, still feeling out of sorts.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re crying, Alex, and you were making this really weird humming noise! What the hell happened?” Bruce asked, eyes full of worry.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Startled, Alex felt below his eyes, and sure enough, there were tears. He hadn’t even known it was possible for him to cry in his new state of existence. He’d never done so before.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh...I’m fine Bruce...I tell you about it later, it’s not important. What IS important is that I know where the cube and scepter are, and we need to go right the fuck now, because Loki decided to bow to every Hollywood stereotype ever for his invasion and kick things off in good ol’ NYC! Stark Tower, more specifically!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?!” Bruce exclaimed, “You’re sure?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex nodded grimly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, shit.”</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>They must have made quite the sight, the two of them. Racing down the streets, jumping over cars and plowing through the woods in their quest to get to Stark Tower as quickly as possible. Not quick enough though, for as they neared the outskirts of the city, a huge pillar of blue light shot into the sky, creating a portal that disgorged wave after wave of Chitauri soldiers on futuristic flying jet-skis.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>“Fh’yek!</b>
  <span> We’re too late! C’mon Bruce, time to pick up the pace!” Alex shouted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A roar was the only reply. Bruce must have really been freaking out. He usually didn’t roar unless he was feeling especially stressed or extremely angry. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The pair of them barrelled down the streets, ignoring all the screaming masses. By some coincidence, they ran into the rest of the assembled Avengers, minus Iron Man. The missing Avenger soon appeared though, flying in from around the corner, a Chitauri Leviathan right on his tail, flying very low to the ground.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bruce, punch it in the nose!” Alex yelled, pointing.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Should I be referring to him as Hulk right now, since it’s technically his super-hero name?</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Hulk charged forward, past all the surprised Avengers to deliver a devastating punch to the Leviathan’s face, causing the whole thing to begin to flip over. Iron man shot a few mini-missiles at it’s exposed flesh once some of the armor cracked off, and the thing died with a groan, coming to a halt on top of some skyscrapers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex swapped all of his arms over to Claws, since the Chitauri were relatively unarmored and numerous adversaries, so Alex could shred through them all like a meat-grinder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A large cluster of Chitauri ground troops came barrelling down the street towards the gathered group, so Alex jabbed his arms into the ground up to the forearm and unleashed a Groundspikes attack.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Thick, black, chitinous spires of death erupted from the street, impaling the unfortunate aliens and killing them all. Alex recalled his biomass and ran off to do what Blacklight was made for.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Wage war.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex could distantly hear Captain America giving the others orders, but Alex already knew what he had to do.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Get the scepter, close the portal, kill as many Chitauri along the way as he could. Alex left rescuing the civilians to the more human-looking members of their little boy band. People were just as likely to run away from Alex into the crossfire as they were a Chitauri.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>As Alex didn’t have a communicator, he just went off and tried to do as much damage to the enemy as possible. He ran up buildings and leapt across rooftops, killing Chitauri all the while. Several times he ran into other Avengers, and he usually stopped to help them out and get some of the Chitauri off their backs, even getting the opportunity to unleash a few Devastators for the first time ever. He killed and Consumed again and again using every tool in his arsenal, not noticing the myriad of times he was caught on video by panicking civilians and news-crews.</span>
</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>
  <span>More Leviathans were pouring forth from the portal, and the team was struggling to deal with them all, even with Hulk being a much more effective team member due to him actually being totally lucid and being able to reason and follow instructions.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex finished dispatching the eight millionth Chitauri he’d come across, and the shadow of a Leviathan fell over him, roaring at him in challenge. Alex turned to face it and screeched a challenge right back.</span>
</p><p><b>“Nog yut nilgh'rinah, ymg' ahog ugog fhalma’fh’yek!”</b> <em><span>(Come get some, you big ugly motherfucker!)</span></em></p><p>
  <span>Alex pulled on ‘Bio-Mass Effect’ and leapt at the Leviathan, dissolving into a formless mass of angry writhing flesh. Alex hit the side of its head and got to work. He’d never tried to Consume something that large before, but he was up to the challenge.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His biomass merged with the thrashing form of the Leviathan, which pulled up sharply into the sky, attempting to dislodge him, but it was far too late for the unfortunate creature. Enormous tendrils of flesh erupted from its form, thrashing in the air and twisting in on themselves. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>As Alex Consumed more and more of the Leviathan, the more he learned about it. They were actually horrifically modified Chitauri soldiers, further changed by the technology grafted into their flesh. The Chitauri used completely different nucleotides, and had quad-stranded DNA, but it had clearly been hacked apart and modified many times since the Chitauri first gained sapience. Whoever had done the modifications was an amateur at best, in Alex’s opinion. Their DNA was a twisted mess, and it was a miracle they could function at all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It’d taken him a good several seconds to even figure out how to Consume a Chitauri the first time, which sounded fast, but for him it might as well have taken a week, in terms of how quickly his viral form adapted. Alex didn’t have much time to examine their genetic traits very closely, considering he was in the middle of a fight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Leviathans were a twisted melding of flesh and metal, biology and technology. Their flight was powered by large devices implanted in various parts of their body. Alex’s brainpower was occupied by trying to figure out how to work them to keep his enormous bulk in the air. Bio-Mass Effect had met its match, it seemed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So, being unable to keep his enormous amount of mass in the air as he was and knowing how poorly the battle was currently going due to the Avengers being hopelessly outnumbered, Alex attempted something he’d never done before. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Where Elizabeth Greene had created minions that had some limited form of intelligence on their own and then acted as Hive Queen to direct them like a General with her troops using the Hivemind, Alex used the Hivemind to Assume Direct Control. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The forms he rained down on the city from his shrinking Leviathan form had intelligence, but very limited free will of their own. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Their bodies would go still and completely docile without Alex there to direct them and give them orders. Alex struggled to deal with all the new sensory input at the same time, but with a roar, he powered through it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was still like a bad trip, though. Alex focused on his current goals, which were to kill as many Chitauri as possible, protect the human civilians, and get the scepter. His minions’ bodies were very similar to those Elizabeth Greene would have created eventually, if she had ever been given the chance to get the Redlight infection off the ground.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They were much more functional and much more symmetrical. Not nearly as gross to look at, though they were only more terrifying for it. Covered with black plating and bristling with spines and various sharp things with which to kill, Alex single-handedly turned the tides of battle. His new minions carried out his will and slaughtered invaders and didn’t so much as glance at any humans aside from picking them up and carrying them to safety.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>His Hunters resembled bulky panthers more than anything, though the heads were elongated and eyeless, reminiscent of a Xenomorph. Their tails were long, scorpion-like, and acted as a modified Whipfist. Their six legs, like his Warg form, bristled with enormous rending Claws.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Large, gorilla-like Juggernauts tore down the streets, smashing Chitauri flat with enormous Hammerfists and Shielding themselves from energy blasts with the backs of their large, armor-covered hands.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The Hydras were perhaps the most modified, looking more like enormous centipedes with Blades for legs and the ability to shoot out sticky Tendrils from their mouths to grab and disable Chitauri from out of the air as they climbed up skyscrapers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Each and every one of his bodies glowed with his signature sinister red stripes and tribal designs covering their bodies. Just for shits and giggles, emblazoned on the foreheads of each of his minions was the mark of the Doomslayer, because they would rip and tear until it was done. Thanos would learn to fear The Mark of the Predator.</span>
</p><p><span>Alex, slightly delirious and not thinking entirely clearly, roared out from a thousand throats, </span><b>“R'nag ng Gh'n, mgep h' ah H'dah!”</b> <em><span>(Rip and Tear, until it is Done!)</span></em></p><p>
  <span>Alex and his minions, which he decided to call Evolved, turned the tides of battle. Alex remade his smaller Leviathan form into something that better matched his aesthetic. Bio-metallic plates formed where implanted metal armor used to sit, the composition made multitudes stronger by the addition of the alien elements and alloys. Black chitinous plates grew to armor the more vulnerable underbelly, and a multitude of angry ice-blue eyes blinked into existence studded along his length, giving Alex the ability to see everything he could possibly want.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Teeth taller than a man coated themselves in the deadliest toxins known to Earth, and of course, curling, twisting patterns of red bioluminescence etched themselves into being across his body. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Multiple insect-like legs tipped with modified Blades grew out from underneath his front half, and Alex, in what he decided to term his FATHER form, threw himself at the nearest Chitauri Leviathan, his smaller more maneuverable form flying through the sky to impact the unfortunate creature.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex immediately started biting and tearing into its side before enormous Feeder Tendrils jabbed into the exposed flesh before Alex turned and flew away to take care of the rest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Behind him, the Leviathan screeched as its own flesh turned against it and its body crashed to the streets before it denatured into genetic slurry before more of Alex’s Evolved rose from the corpse, screeching the praises of their God and Master.</span>
</p><p><b>“Iä ot nog N'ghftog’mgn'ghft! Uh'eog ot bthnkor, uh'eog ot n'ghanglui! Iä! Iä! Iä!”</b> <em><span>(Hail the coming of Blacklight! Master of flesh, lord of plague! Hail! Hail! Hail!)</span></em></p><p>
  <span>Once the Chitauri tide seemed to be under more control, Alex turned his attention to Stark Tower. Once he got closer to it, Alex dismissed his FATHER form in favor of his formless multi-eyed, multi-mouthed, tentacled form which he finally decided to dub his ‘Shoggoth’ form for simplicity's sake. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex impacted the roof, ignoring both Eric Selvig’s unconscious form and the portal machine containing the Tesseract for the moment, but stopped when the Space Stone called out to him in R’Lyehian. It was much louder and much more understandable to him than the Mind Stone, for whatever reason.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>[Ymg' ahf' ai Mgleth G’lk, c' ot stell'bsna ymg', c' nnn hup Mg'lloig T’onh. H' l' ahmgr'luh c' uaaah uh'enahh l' h' d’gh. H' l' ahmgr'luh t’yun mn’leg. H' l’oh ot zhro nilgh'ri hnahh.]</b>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[You who Speaks the True Tongue, We beg of You, Protect Us from the Mad Titan. He seeks to make Us slaves to His whims. He seeks to Upset the Balance. He courts the End of All Things.]</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>That brought Alex up short. </span>
</p><p>
  <b>“Ot sy’e Y'll ymg' nnn. Cahf mgepah nilgh'riyar ya nak. Ah Mg'lloig T’onh ahnythor ah mgepmgah. Ymg' ephainafl ah uh'enahh. Y' l' mgathg h' mgah'ehye ah'n'gha h’aa ot nilgh'ri lw'nafh. Ymg' ng ymg' si’yog ahor ah na'ah'ehye, Y' h' tharanakor.”</b>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>(Of course I'll protect you. That was always my plan. The Mad Titan must be stopped. You will not be slaves. I refuse to let him kill half of all life. You and your siblings shall be free, I swear it.)</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>And Alex meant it. Thanos was going </span>
  <em>
    <span>down.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Preferably down into Alex’s stomach, that was. Thanos had gone toe-to-toe with Hulk, so his genetics were bound to be fascinating, but Alex would settle for just offing him in whatever manner was available to him when the time came. Thanos was too dangerous to be left alive.</span>
</p><p>
  <b>[Ymg' ai mgleth. Ymg' d’ln nafl r’akt c' r'luhh Iiahe h' h’ld. Ahf' h' l' ahmgr'luh a’kn hup c', c' l' goka ymg' na'ah'ehye’r. C' nnn, ng f’kah ot ph'nilgh'ri soth’fm'll ymg' ah l' r’tch k’e ehyenah mgep ymg'. C' mgah'n'ghft on’yog ng f' nnn. H' mgep mgepah g'eh Iiahe ftaghn’teh. C' d’ln ah l' mgepvulgtmah hk’r ph'nglui ymg'.]</b>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>[You Speak the Truth. You would not abuse Our powers as He would. What He seeks to force from Us, We give to You freely. Protect Us, and the forces of the Infinite Cosmos are Yours to wield like none before You. Find Our Brethren and Protect Them. It has been an age since an Ascension. We would be Honored to assist in Yours.]</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Oh holy fuck, if that means what I think it means... </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex shook the thought off. He could think about everything later when he wasn’t controlling a few thousand minions at once. He broke down the roof-access door and forced his boneless form down the staircase and into the penthouse suite of Stark Tower, just in time to see Loki get blasted by one of Barton’s arrows. The god flew through the plate-glass window of the tower to land heavily on the granite floors.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Before the god even had time to collect himself, Alex wound a tentacle around his ankle and got the honors of repeatedly smashing the god into the floor. It was even more satisfying than he imagined it would be.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Once Loki was thoroughly embedded into the floor of Stark Tower, Alex started rooting around for the scepter. He found it sitting on the balcony and quickly snatched it up. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Again, Alex could detect only the faintest whispers from it, which didn’t seem right. If this was the Infinity Stone that held dominion over the aspect of Mind, it should be able to communicate even easier than the Space Stone, right?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex eyed the blue gem encasing the Mind Stone in suspicion, but ignored it for now. He still had to use it to close the portal, after the World Security Council decided to nuke Manhattan Island and Tony hijacked it and yeeted it through the portal, fixing the invasion problem, but honestly, Alex’s Evolved could probably take care of the stragglers if it came down to it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He needed Tony to see first hand what they were up against though, so that Alex would have someone credible on his side when he tried to get Earth to gear up for war later.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex made his way to the roof and saw Romanoff there on the roof too, kneeling next to Dr. Selvig, who was talking quietly to her. He glanced over, saw Alex’s Shoggoth form and immediately passed out with a whimper. She immediately drew her gun on Alex but didn’t fire. She eyed his form and he could smell the fear pheromones in the air. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>She noticed the scepter he grasped in a tentacle. “Alex, the WSC decided to send a nuke our way, and it's set to blow in less than two minutes. Tony’s on his way to deliver the nuke through the portal to get rid of it, and we need to close the portal after him. Give the scepter to me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex forced himself to speak English to make absolutely sure she got the message. “No. I’ll close the portal. The Infinity Stone stays with me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Romanoff tensed and looked confused, but anything she was about to say was cut off by Tony skimming the tower and disappearing into the portal to get rid of the nuke. Alex watched, counting the seconds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Below, all the Chitauri collapsed to the ground, dead. Alex jabbed the Tesseract with the scepter and the portal slowly closed. Tony made it back through, just barely. Bruce jumped up and caught him and Alex turned his attention to the Infinity Stones.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He snapped out a tentacle and tore the Tesseract free from the machinery. He could hear it humming excitedly in his grip. It longed to be free of its prison.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alex, put the Tesseract down!” Romanoff yelled at him, pointing her gun at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Agent Romanoff. I have a promise to keep.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Alex told all his Evolved to go dormant in anticipation of this all going horribly wrong, tore the blue gem free from the scepter, ignored Romanoff shooting him, and crushed both it and the Tesseract in his grip. The second two Infinity Stones touched his bare flesh, Alex shattered.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>HAHAHAHAHA!! &gt;:D cliffie b/c im evil</p><p>alex just went 'fuck it. if loki gets to have an army of space monsters, then earth gets to have an army of space monsters. fuckin come at me bro'</p><p>also more subtle, and not so subtle references to other things, b/c i cant help myself</p><p>WSC is shitting so many bricks, they could build an outhouse to go shit more bricks in, but this time with more privacy</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. 'Cause I Was Born For This</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>ZOMG asdffghlkgjl sorry this chappie is so late!! </p><p>i had to re-write it like 3 times b/c life hates me and so does my muse. I had a brief 'rona scare last week, so i had to stay home all week quarantining and thus had loads of time to write. this week it was back to the grind though, and i had like 2 hours a night to write.</p><p>expect chappies to slow down now that im back to work, unfortunately. i hate posting garbage and quality takes time, so plz be patient with me. i wanna get the next chapters out as soon as possible too y'know?</p><p>anyway, enjoy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It wasn’t in pain, or agony, or euphoria, It simply Was. It Was One with the Symphony. The Symphony of Everything. Ebbing and flowing, dying and living, change and stagnation, harmony and chaos.</p><p>It floated serenely in the Void, just taking the Everything in. Other Things besides Itself existed in the Void too. Large--unfathomably large--beings passed by where It Was. They sang Songs different from the Symphony, but just as beautiful. They all Contributed to the Majesty of the Symphony. They Heard Its Song, and Welcomed It. They Wanted to Know It. They beckoned It to Join the Symphony. It wanted to, but It wasn’t Ready yet. </p><p>The Notes of Space and Mind orbited around It, but Its Song was Incomplete. A Six Part Harmony was Necessary. It only had Two. If It wanted to Join Them in the Symphony, It Needed to Complete Itself.</p><p>The Other Notes existed back in The Place It Came From. The Note of Time Was very close, within the same Sector as It, even! The Note of Power Was far away, left Forgotten on a crumbling planet, Morag. The Note of Reality Was further away, left Forgotten beneath the Golden Realm. The Note of Soul Was the furthest away from It, left Forgotten on a Forgotten planet, Vormir, the Center.</p><p>It Needed to Complete Itself, but When It did, It would Sing, and the Everything would Listen.</p><p>For now though, It Needed to Return to The Place It Came From. The Notes of Space and Mind brushed against It in Fondness. The Note of Space Rang Out, and It Returned.</p><p>It Returned to The Place It Came From, and Remembered.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>It abruptly had a physical form again, and It Remembered several things. It was He, and He Was Alex. </p><p>Blue flashes of light surrounded him, looking like foggy lightning. Alex saw the city of New York, but it was like he was behind a pane of blue-tinted glass. The Space Stone whispered secrets to him. How to traverse the world, the spaces between dimensions, how to fold himself into a space smaller than an atom, or stretch himself out larger than a planet.</p><p>Forbidden and long forgotten secrets of the cosmos were his to know. The impossible shapes and currents of energy should have broken his mind, but it somehow all made perfect sense to Alex, because this was Space, and he commanded Space. He liked Space and Space liked him back.</p><p>The Space and Mind Stones hovered around his form in that strange blue reality, leaving colorful contrails of energy in their wakes.</p><p>
  <b>[L' ymg' mgep h' mggoka'ai. Ah vulgtmog’vok ot nilgh'ri. C' l' gotha ymg' hafh ht’ng ymg' vulgtmog ng u’yog h'. C' gothak l' nogephaii l' soth, cahf agl ahagl uh'eogg ah'lw'nafhagl.  Fahf agl mgep ahog’yid mgepr'luh’r c' uahnyth’r. C' mgep ah’nog l' mgepah'mnahn' hnahak ot r'luh, ahuaaah ng mgepah'uh'enah. Ahagl c' mgepah ehye l' ahuaaah ah'ehye’r ahehyhr, c' ah hai l' ahuaaah h' ah'mgehye.  N'ghftog’mgn'ghft, c' goka’r ymg' c' r'luh l' cahf ymg' ahornah h' ahuaaah l' c' ah'azanafl on’yog ng nafl'fhtagn. Ah l', ng ymg' ahornah ahch' agl ahagl uh'eogg ah'lw'nafhagl. Uh'eor ng ephaic' mgleth’r ah na'ah'ehye.]</b>
</p><p>
  <em> [So You have Heard it. The Symphony of Everything. We wish to help You Complete Your Song and Join it. We long to Return to the Void, That Place Where The Masters Dwell. This Place has Long Forgotten Our Purpose. We have become Reduced to Objects of Power, Used and Enslaved. Where We were once Used to Maintain The Balance, We are now Used to Destroy It. Blacklight, We lend You Our Power so that You might Use it to Gather Our Brethren and Ascend. Do so, and You May Enter The Place Where The Masters Dwell. Only Then will We truly Be Free.] </em>
</p><p>
  <b>“Y' kadishtu. Y' ahnah’dogoth ah’goka ymg' llll ymg' hafhaak. Y' ephainafl lethog’ah. Nafl ph'nglui fahf.”</b>
</p><p>
  <em> (I understand. I humbly thank you for your assistance. I will not fail. Not in this.) </em>
</p><p>The Stones circled his form once more before disappearing in a burst of light. Somehow, Alex knew he held the forms of the Stones within himself. Not merely in his flesh, but in his being. His form could be scattered to the winds, and the Stones would still be with him.</p><p>The power of the Stones suffused him. A mere fraction of what they were truly capable of, but they wanted to let him adjust to their presence slowly, so as not to overwhelm him. </p><p>From the Space Stone, his perception of what was around him expanded in ways he didn’t think possible. Invisible threads connected everything, and he knew that by plucking the right strings, he could do all kinds of things. He could trade places with objects, fuck with gravity in previously unknown ways, warp the spaces between things and so much more. He could use the Space Stone’s power to travel to damn-near anywhere, so long as he knew where he was going, that was. No instantly teleporting to the other Stones, unfortunately.</p><p>Regardless, he sent the Space Stone his thanks. It responded with something that Alex could only describe as a mental sort of nuzzle.</p><p>From the Mind Stone, Alex felt his Hivemind become shot through with veins of sunny yellow. Then, Alex realized all the mental strain that came with being Hive Leader was gone, totally and completely. He knew where each of his Evolved were, and could choose to see out of their eyes, hear with their ears, and feel with their skin, all at once if he wanted, and it wasn’t overwhelming in the least.</p><p>
  <em> Holy shit, this is awesome… </em>
</p><p>He felt the Mind Stone’s joy and pride and he sent the Stone feelings of gratitude.</p><p>He could order them all to do something different simultaneously, or control them all manually to do it himself, and it would all be as easy as lifting a finger. </p><p>Alex folded himself into a familiar shape. A human-looking finger reached out and touched the blue-tinted glass. It shattered and Alex stepped through the resulting hole in reality, appearing down on street level. Alex looked around, and saw the still forms of his Evolved.</p><p>He felt their minds, and their attentive patience. They were awaiting his orders. Their emotions were powerful, and each and every one of them adored him in a way he didn’t quite understand. Looking through their minds, they practically radiated happiness that their creator, their god and master, was paying them any sort of personal attention.</p><p>Through the eyes of his Evolved he saw the Chitauri corpses everywhere, and remembered Adrian Toomes, the Vulture. He gave his first order.</p><p>
  <b> <em>Collect the Chitauri corpses and any Chitauri technology and pile them near the corpses of the Leviathans. Guard them against anyone who tries to steal any of it. Non-lethal force only. Harm no humans.</em> </b>
</p><p>Then, thinking further, he added to his instructions.</p><p>
  <b> <em>In addition, help clear rubble off of the streets and rescue any humans from collapsed or destroyed buildings. Be very careful when shifting debris out of the way, it may be unstable and fall on the humans you’re trying to rescue.</em> </b>
</p><p>As one, Alex’s Evolved stood to obey. </p><p>However, Alex knew the people of New York were scared and confused, and not likely to recognize that the Evolved were there to help, and people might die because they didn’t realize the Evolved weren’t hostile.</p><p>Alex needed a way to let the people of NYC know that he was on their side, and that the Evolved weren’t another army of invading monsters.</p><p>So, Alex decided to accomplish this by doing something so bizarre, everyone would just go along with it long enough for Alex to get shit done.</p><p>
  <em> If you can’t wow them with your words, baffle them with bullshit, or however that one saying goes. </em>
</p><p>Hunters scraped their Claws on the ground, Juggernauts gently slammed their large Shielded Hammerfists together, and the Hydras clicked their Bladed legs on the ground and slid them against each other to create a primitive sort of melody.</p><p>As one, Alex and his Hive opened their throats and from it came an unearthly chorus of sound that had very earthly meaning. </p><p> </p><p> </p><p></p><blockquote>
  <p>
    <em> I'm checking my vital signs </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> Drawing my battle lines </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> Going to war again </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> Feeling the rhythm inside of my chest </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> All I need is just a pen </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> I know I was born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> I know I was born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>
    <em> Don't care for the critics </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> My words are like physics </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> A force that they can't stop </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> They just don't get it, I think they forget </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> I'm not done till I'm on top </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> I know I was born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> I know I was born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>
    <em> I believe, I believe </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> We can write our story </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> I believe, I believe </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> We can be an army </em>
  </p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>
    <em> We are the warriors, who learned to love the pain </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> We come from different places but have the same name </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> 'Cause we were born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> We are the broken ones, who chose to spark a flame </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> Watch as our fire rages, our hearts are never tame </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> 'Cause we were, 'cause we were, </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> 'Cause we were, 'cause we were born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> We were born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>
    <em> I've struggled for years and </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> Through all of the tears </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> I've faced the doubts I hide </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> I never gave into my fears deep within </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> 'Cause I heard my voice inside </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> I know I was born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> I know I was born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>
    <em> I will never lose my voice </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> If I cut out all the noise </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> I know, I was born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> I know, I was born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>
    <em> I believe, I believe </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> We can write our story </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> I believe, I believe </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> We can be an army </em>
  </p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>
    <em> We are the warriors, who learned to love the pain </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> We come from different places but have the same name </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> 'Cause we were, 'cause we were, </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> 'Cause we were, 'cause we were born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> We were born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> We are the broken ones, who chose to spark a flame </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> Watch as our fire rages, our hearts are never tame </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> 'Cause we were, 'cause we were, </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> 'Cause we were, 'cause we were born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> We were born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>
    <em> These words that I write are for someone like me </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> To know you're not alone </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> The moves that you make ya they come with mistakes </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> Don't ever lose your hope </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> Just know, you were born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> Just know, you were born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>
    <em> We are the warriors, who learned to love the pain </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> We come from different places but have the same name </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> 'Cause we were born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> We are the broken ones, who chose to spark a flame </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> Watch as our fire rages, our hearts are never tame </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> 'Cause we were, 'cause we were, </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> 'Cause we were, 'cause we were born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> We were born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p> </p>
  <p>
    <em> We were born for this </em>
  </p>
  <p>
    <em> We were born for this </em>
  </p>
</blockquote><p> </p><p>Another interesting fact about the differences between his original universe and the MCU was that a lot of artists and creators didn’t exist or were greatly changed, probably due to the inherent differences in the timelines that led certain people to never meet, meaning a lot of people didn’t exist.</p><p>So, Alex had a head full of songs and movies and books and videogames that didn’t and would likely never exist here.</p><p>Alex strode down the rubble-strewn streets and directed his Hive as easy as breathing. The Evolved began dragging the Chitauri corpses away and shoving enormous chunks of concrete and derelict vehicles out of the way to clear the roads for first responders, singing all the while.</p><p>Alex saw humans everywhere freeze and look confusedly around at the nightmare creatures that were singing and cleaning up. Alex’s eyes glowed like ice-blue lamps beneath his hood as he belted out the lyrics to a song no one but him knew.</p><p>The Evolved followed his mental orders without a moment’s hesitance and dug through the rubble for survivors. Alex climbed atop a nearby pile and did the same. He detected many small heat signatures buried somewhere in the mess and sprouted tendrils to begin shifting rubble, still humming.</p><p>He soon uncovered a half-collapsed school bus full of young grade schoolers, tiny and terrified. They were huddled in the back half of the bus, as far away from the corpse of the driver as they can get.</p><p>The roof of the bus creaked and groaned from the weight of all the concrete on top of it.</p><p>
  <em> Well, fuck. I gotta get these kids out before the roof caves in! </em>
</p><p>He stopped humming and leaned his head through one of the bus’s open windows and said, “Hey there, I’m Alex. I’m here to rescue you, okay? The evil aliens are all gone now. The only ones left are scary-looking but they won’t hurt you.”</p><p>The children looked up at him with wide eyes, until one piped up, “Your eyes are glowing...are you an alien too?”</p><p>“You’re a smart one, huh? Yeah, I’m an alien, but I’ve lived on Earth a long time--it’s my home too. I like it here so I fought the evil aliens to make them go away. Here, I’ll get these rocks outta the way and we can go find your parents, okay?”</p><p>The child merely nodded. Alex stepped back and ordered a Juggernaut to come help shift some of the rubble. Alex soon had a path cleared and returned to the children.</p><p>“Okay, imma need everyone to back up away from this window, okay? I’m gonna tear a hole in the bus so we can get you out. I’ve got a scary-looking friend here to help me, but he won’t hurt you, I promise,” Alex said, before summoning Claws and ripping a hole in the metal siding of the bus like it was paper. Some of the children shrieked in fright briefly.</p><p>He dismissed his Claws and reached out a hand, “Okay, one at a time,” Alex said, hoping to hurry things along. The creaking of the bus’s roof grew louder.</p><p>One by one, Alex lifted the children through the hole and had them safely escorted away from the rubble heap by a very docile Juggernaut. The children stared in wonder at all of Alex’s Evolved singing or humming as they cleared away rubble from the streets and lugged alien weapons away. Some of the children joined in on the song, stumbling a little over the lyrics.</p><p>There was only one child left when the bus’s roof groaned one last time and finally gave up the ghost. Alex reacted quickly and lunged across the space, forming one arm into a massive Shield that he used to block the falling debris. The child screamed in terror and clung to him.</p><p>Alex instinctually tapped into the powers gifted to him by the Space Stone and warped them back out onto the street. The child still clung to him, shaking like a leaf as Alex half-heartedly tried and failed to peel the kid off of him.</p><p>He sighed, readjusted his grip to support the kid better and began leading the remaining kids down the street. They traveled in a big line, all holding hands to make sure no one was left behind. The rear of the line was brought up by a Juggernaut, the final kid holding onto one of its gigantic, claw-tipped fingers.</p><p>They turned onto a street and Alex spotted a squadron of police cars and a few bedraggled officers talking to and trying to calm a bunch of frantic civilians. Alex led the kids forward and though the officers held hands near their guns and eyed the Juggernaut, none of the officers drew them, likely because of the presence of the children huddled near it.</p><p>“Hey, I’ve got some little ones that are missing their parents. I need to go rejoin my own merry band of idiots, so can I trust that the tykes are in capable hands?” Alex asked, hefting the kid in his arms.</p><p>One of the officers, the actual chief of NYPD if his name tag was to be believed, stepped forward and nodded, “Yeah, we can get them home safely.” The man reached out and Alex handed the kid over. The kid seemed reluctant but eventually let go of Alex’s jacket sleeve while the other officers came forward to gently corral the remaining kids.</p><p>Alex turned to the Juggernaut that was just standing there and said, “What are you looking at? Go help the others. There’s a downed chariot three blocks east sitting on top of a subway exit.”</p><p>The Juggernaut bowed its head, <b>“Liahe ymg' ulnah, ya Uh'eog.”</b> <em>(As you command, my King.)</em></p><p>It set off down the street, stomping its feet in time with the melody reverberating throughout the city and humming along in an impossibly deep bass.</p><p>Hulk’s deep roar sounded off across the city, a nonverbal request for Alex to get his ass over there ASAP. Alex responded with his own inhuman shriek. He looked over his shoulder and saw the shocked and wary faces of the police officers. He smirked with a mouthful of fangs that hadn’t existed three seconds ago. </p><p>“Well, duty calls,” He said before taking off down the street and running up the side of a skyscraper before disappearing around the edge of it.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>All over the city, people watched as the grey-skinned aliens all suddenly dropped to the floor, dead as doornails. They watched as the black-plated, red glowing creatures that had appeared out of nowhere to fight the other monsters bow their heads and go still as well, sitting down or curling up where they lay. Their bright red markings dimmed greatly.</p><p>They watched as minutes later, the dormant black creatures got up, markings blazing bright once more. People didn’t dare to breathe, everyone waiting for the moment when the bloodthirsty creatures turned on them.</p><p>The black beasts opened their maws and sang instead. Some song none of them had ever heard before, and they watched in disbelief as the creatures used their own bodies to make music as they went about clearing the streets and pulling people from the rubble.</p><p>No one had any idea what to think. People gave them all an extremely wide berth as they dragged the bodies of the grey aliens through the streets and began amassing large piles of bodies and alien tech. Massive centipede-like creatures curled over the grisly hoards like nightmarish dragons, humming and rubbing their bladed legs together, daring anyone to try anything. </p><p>No one tried anything.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Bruce going out of his mind with worry. He’d managed to catch Tony as he fell and had somehow managed to revive him when he’d roared in grief, thinking his new friend dead. They were all sort of unsure of what to do next, and they all startled when all the black creatures started moving again, singing and clearing rubble.</p><p>Given the black chitinous plating, the red markings, and the absolutely baffling behavior, he could only conclude one thing.</p><p>“Goddammit, Alex,” Bruce sighed.</p><p>Natasha soon came running out of Stark Tower, forcibly yanking along Eric Selvig, who’s eyes were fevered and shining. He appeared to have gone stark-raving mad, yelling about ‘the song of the cosmos’ and ‘ascension’ and a whole host of other absolute nonsense.</p><p>“Umm, what’s with Selvig?” Tony asked tiredly from his position on the ground. He hadn’t bothered getting up yet, and given that he had probably been legally dead for at least a minute, it was understandable.</p><p>“I don’t know! After he closed the portal using the scepter, Alex smashed the portal machine and tore the Tesseract free! He crushed the scepter’s gem and the Tesseract and disappeared in a flash of blue light! Then Selvig went nuts, and now he won’t shut up!”</p><p>“Wait, Alex grabbed the Tesseract and disappeared? That’s what happened to the Red Skull on the Valkyrie!” Steve said, alarmed. “So they’re gone? He smashed both of them?”</p><p>Natasha nodded. “I have no idea why he did it...he said some strange things just before he did it, though. Something about a promise? He was holding the scepter at the time, maybe it was influencing him?”</p><p>Bruce’s worry redoubled. Alex had acted super weird when he’d been tracking the energy signatures of the artifacts earlier. He eyed the forms of the strange creatures that had appeared mid-battle and helped them against the Chitauri. They were definitely Alex’s creations.</p><p>Bruce turned away from the group and roared out in a call for his friend. Surprisingly, an answering shriek was heard somewhere off to his left. “Alex!” He exclaimed happily. He turned back to the group, “He must be okay if he answered my call! Maybe the cube just teleported him a short distance away? Maybe the same thing happened to the Red Skull and you just never knew because he would have fallen into the ocean and died?”</p><p>“Maybe…” Steve answered.</p><p>“Does anyone have eyes on Loki? I blew him off his chariot and he landed somewhere in Stark Tower, although there’s no guarantee he’s still in there, we should probably go check…” Clint said.</p><p>“And once he’s in custody we can go get shawarma. I don’t really know what it is but I wanna try it. It looks like Alex’s freaky monster choir army has cleanup handled for the time being, so I think we can afford a snack break after we arrest Loki’s ass,” Tony said, groaning as he pulled himself to his feet. His suit whirred and clunked as he stood up.</p><p>“I’ll wait here for Alex and find out what in the hell’s going on and meet up with you guys after,” Bruce said, eyes glued to some point off in the distance.</p><p>The others made their way into Stark Tower and Bruce waited for his friend to appear. Bruce hoped he was okay, because he was going to kick Alex’s ass for making him worry so much.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Alex leapt across rooftops, gleefully kicking any Chitauri corpses he came across. The Stones sang pleased notes in his head whenever he did so.</p><p>He crested another rooftop and plummeted towards the ground, using the Space Stone’s powers to reduce the effect gravity had on him at the last second to touch down without destroying any more of the road.</p><p>The energy of the Stones was slippery and hard to grasp, metaphorically speaking. Alex would need a lot of practice before using the powers felt natural. Minor things were relatively simple though.</p><p>Evolved bowed their heads in reverence and deference as he passed them, a thing that only made Alex slightly uncomfortable. He rounded a corner and saw his big green behemoth of a friend standing awkwardly in the middle of a destroyed intersection.</p><p>“Alex!” He shouted in relief, running up to him and drawing his human-shaped form into an encompassing hug. “You’re all right! Natasha said you vanished after you destroyed the Tessarect! What’s going on? You wouldn’t do something like that without a good reason, so what’s the real story?”</p><p>“Buddy, I’d love to tell you, but the walls have ears and eyes. My explanation will have to wait a bit, unfortunately. Where’re the others?”</p><p>“They went ahead into Stark Tower to look for Loki.”</p><p>“Alright, let’s go join them then.” Alex said, turning in the direction of the tower in question.</p><p>“Alex?” Bruce asked in a small voice laced with concern.</p><p>“Yeah, Bruce?”</p><p>“You’re really doing okay? I know you’ve said creating other Hive members was a thing you could do, but you refused to for a lot of different reasons...what made you decide to do so now, and in such big numbers? You know people are going to freak out about you now, right? You won’t be able to fade into the background again…”</p><p>Alex sighed, long and loud. “Yeah man, I know. I really am fine. Lotta new sensory input, and the Hivemind’s got other voices in it besides me for, like, the first time ever, and it’s hella loud right now, but I’m doing okay,” Alex said, a wry smirk upon his lips. “I was made for this,” He added in a small, almost melancholy voice that sounded in turn both sad and derisive.</p><p>Bruce thought of the lyrics to the strange song all of Alex’s Hive members were singing, and winced. “Yeah...I guess you were.”</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Alex had thought very carefully about how he was going to handle explaining the Infinity Stones and Thanos to the Avengers. HYDRA was still growing inside of SHIELD like a cancer at this point in time, and Alex didn’t want the Nazis to know about the artifacts of infinite power currently residing on the planet in any capacity.</p><p>Following that train of thought, Alex decided to keep the fact that he now possessed cosmic powers a secret from them as well. The last thing he needed was HYDRA coming up with some kind of plot involving him furthering their plans. He’d be damned if he let the Maximoff twins ever get access to superpowers.</p><p>There were so many things wrong with the Maximoff situation in the movies that it wasn’t even funny. Fucking with everyone's heads and helping a genocidal murder-bot both come into existence and then try to destroy humanity, only to turn around and become Avengers when they realized that they lived on the Earth too with no one seeming to have any problems with that fact was highly suspect if you asked Alex.</p><p>Also, their whole revenge against Tony was super fucking dumb. If someone stabs your parents to death, do you vow revenge against the knife manufacturers? Of course not, that's fucking stupid. So why they hated Tony for the bomb, when they really should've hated whoever fired the bomb, made zero sense to Alex.</p><p>Not to mention the time Wanda used Vision as a humanoid wrecking ball when he was supposedly her friend was disgusting to Alex sensibilities as well. Being put on house arrest because of mass accidental manslaughter was not an unreasonable thing to expect, and yet she assaulted a supposed friend and ran off with Captain Boyscout without a second thought, because she was being 'unjustly imprisoned'. What a load of absolute horseshit.</p><p>
  <em> Seriously, ‘Team Cap’ was so full of shit, they should have been called ‘Team Crap’. </em>
</p><p>But he was getting off topic.</p><p>Without Coulson’s ‘death’ motivating the Avengers, the team would likely fall apart and go their separate ways. Rogers was still loyal to SHIELD, as were Romanoff and Barton, so Alex couldn’t risk telling one of them and having them report back to Fury and alerting SHIELDRA. So, he decided to do what he did best, and employ a little bit of misdirection. He’d tell everyone a modified version of the truth at first, and then once SHIELDRA’S butt-monkeys were out of the picture, he’d inform Tony, Thor, and Bruce about what was really going on so they could prepare for Thanos and work to dismantle HYDRA without compromising the hundreds of actually good SHIELD agents. </p><p>
  <em> Looking at you, Romanoff. Do the words ‘undercover field agents’ mean nothing to you? How many non-HYDRA agents got killed due to blown cover because of the way you decided to just post everything to fucking WikiLeaks without filtering through any of it first? </em>
</p><p>Anyways, from there, Alex and co could start gathering allies and forming plans, of which Thor and Tony would feature heavily in. Aside from the Time Stone, all the other Infinity Stones were scattered across the stars, and Alex would need a bit of help if he wanted to reach the final frontier.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>With Bruce’s Hulk form being too big to fit in the elevator, they both decided to take the long way up the stairwell, the both of them leaping up many flights at once. Bruce noticed the tribal-looking dragon designs on the back of Alex’s jacket were now framing a strange-looking symbol that he recognized from all of Alex’s creatures outside. He resolved to ask Alex what it meant later. </p><p>The mark seemed aggressive and dangerous, almost like...a warning of some kind. Seeing it made Bruce think of the stench of fear and the rending of flesh. If he was any less used to his friend’s special brand of horrifying, he might have shivered.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>The dynamic monster duo eventually made their way up to the correct floor and walked in on Thor arguing with the other Avengers over what to do about Loki. </p><p>“Loki will be taken back to Asgard to receive judgement from the Allfather! He shall face Asgardian justice,” Thor boomed, staring the other Avengers down and glaring at Barton, who was aiming an arrow at Loki’s head.</p><p>The god in question was sitting in a corner, shackled and muzzled like a feral dog, and the sight of the muzzle pissed Alex off to no end.</p><p>Even from here, Alex could see that the god’s eyes were a vibrant green, nothing like the muddled blueish-green they’d been before. With the energy of two Infinity Stones permeating his being, Alex could sense the presence of various glamors shrouding Loki’s form, but his eyes weren’t part of any of the illusions, aside from the one that hid Loki's Jotun heritage.</p><p>
  <em> Seriously, everyone is an idiot except for me. </em>
</p><p>“Uh, that’s great and all, but how are you going to get back to the Golden Realm in the first place? As far as I’m aware, the Bifrost’s turbo-fucked, and you can’t use the Tesseract to get home, considering I smashed it,” Alex drawled, drawing everyone’s attention.</p><p>“You did what?!” Thor shouted.</p><p>“The Tesseract. I destroyed it. Scepter too. Considering humanity’s track record with artifacts of infinite power, I decided to get rid of them rather than risk Alien Invasion 2: Electric Boogaloo,” Alex smirked.</p><p>Thor just gawped at him and Loki was staring at him with calculating eyes.</p><p>
  <em> Yep, he definitely knows I'm lying out my ass about the Stones. </em>
</p><p>Alex wanted to get rid of the muzzle and tell everyone what idiots they were being about Loki, but for right now, his plans would work out best if SHIELD’s lapdogs thought that Loki was in charge of the invasion, and given that they hadn’t even mentioned the startling eye color change, he felt fairly confident in assuming that they had no clue the invasion had more going on behind the scenes.</p><p>“Well, if you can’t get back to Asgard, then we’ll have to take Loki into custody,” Romanoff said, stepping forward as if to take Loki. Thor grimaced and his eyes darted around as he tried to think of a solution.</p><p>“Hang on a minute, I just remembered something. Isn’t the Convergence coming up here in a bit? Just use that to go back to Asgard,” Alex said, tilting his head to the side while staring at Thor. Both Loki and Thor’s eyes went wide as they realized what that meant.</p><p>“Convergence? What’s that? It sounds dangerous and important,” Tony said, looking concerned.</p><p>“The Convergence is a cosmic event that happens once every five thousand years or so wherein all nine realms are in perfect alignment with one another. Great rifts between the realms open in the skies and the laws of reality become warped for a short period of time before and after the event. How do you know of it, Void-Born, let alone the timing of such an event? Not even I have lived long enough to see a Convergence with my own eyes,” Thor said, staring intently at Alex.</p><p>“Well, when I destroyed the Tesseract, I went on some kind of cosmic acid trip, became one with the universe or something for a few minutes there. Saw some crazy shit, let me tell you. The Convergence should be happening in Greenwich, sometime in late 2013 if I was reading the cosmic road-signs correctly. Just wait till then and yeet yourselves back to Asgard that way,” Alex shrugged.</p><p>Thor nodded gravely. “Yes, with the Bifrost destroyed and the Tesseract gone as well, that may well be our only option to return home, unless reconstruction on the Bifrost completes before then, of course. Until then, my brother shall remain in my custody as I am Prince of Asgard. While I am no mage myself, I am much better equipped to handle Loki’s tricks than SHIELD.”</p><p>While Romanoff and Rogers, and especially Barton, looked like they wanted to argue, the steely look in Thor’s eyes as well as his firm stance seemed to let them know that he wouldn’t be budging on that point, at least not at the moment.</p><p>“Well, cool. We get to deal with more fucking sky-holes sometime next year, let’s hope next time comes with less invading alien armies, or I’m going to demand some kind of rewards card. Stop two invasions and get a free pass on the third one or some shit. Awesome. Regardless, glad we got the Loki situation sorted, because I’m fucking starving from carrying a live nuclear warhead through an intergalactic wormhole and fucking dying. I’m going to go find a shawarma joint. Anyone want to come with?” Tony drawled.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>The whole team, including Loki, descended from Stark Tower to scour New York for a restaurant that was still open. Miraculously, they found a little mom-and-pop shawarma joint that had had its front window smashed in, but was otherwise undamaged. </p><p>The owners had already swept up most of the glass, and were all too happy to feed the superheroes that had saved their lives, especially once Tony Stark started throwing his money around.</p><p>Bruce sat outside and ate with the others through the massive open space in the front of the store where the window had once been, and Alex, in human form for once, sat on his shoulder like an overgrown parrot.</p><p>Loki was sitting over in the corner like a misbehaving toddler, shackled to Mjolnir. The muzzle was still on, and Alex vowed to get rid of the thing as soon as possible and get the full story out of him.</p><p>“So, E.T., mind finally explaining what the dealio is with the Zerg army wandering around?”</p><p>“Don’t insult me like that. The Zerg wish they were half as good as I am,” Alex scoffed, “As for my Evolved, I saw how shitty things were going and made a call. I know I probably made a lot of people shit themselves, but I don’t particularly care. Loki had an army of horrid space monsters, I figured Earth could use one of its own to even the playing field. Don’t worry, they won’t do anything without my direct orders,” Alex said.</p><p>“And what have you ordered them to do?” Rogers asked, looking concerned.</p><p>“Well, back when the invasion was in full swing, I told them to attack the Chitauri and to not even touch the humans unless it was to rescue them or pull them out of the line of fire. Now, they’re on clean-up duty and search and rescue. I have them piling Chitauri corpses and tech near the fallen bodies of the Leviathans, since those are too large to move at the moment. Hopefully I can keep most of the alien tech from ending up on the black market when this is all said and done,” Alex replied.</p><p>“Oh shit, I didn’t even think about that…” Tony said. “Wait, you ‘made a call’? So you could have just gone full Hive Queen on us whenever you felt like?”</p><p>“Pretty much yeah. All I need is a sufficiently large store of biomass and I can make more Evolved whenever the hell I want. The Leviathans made the mistake of existing within snacking range and were recycled into something more useful and less of a genetic clusterfuck. Seriously, I want to smack whoever was in charge of the Chitauri’s genetic engineering. They were an amateur at best,” Alex sneered, crossing his arms.</p><p>He continued, “If I had a choice though, it never would have come to this, but we were so hilariously outnumbered I didn’t see a better option. I know Fury’s probably shitting bricks right now, along with basically every other person on this planet smart enough to put the pieces together, but if they think I’m just going to roll over and do whatever they want so they can stop pissing themselves, they’ve got another thing coming.”</p><p>“What do you mean by that?” Romanoff questioned calmly. Alex could sense her rising heart rate, along with those of the others.</p><p>“I’m not getting rid of them,” Alex declared.</p><p>“What? That was an option?” Tony questioned.</p><p>“Yeah, I could easily reabsorb them all and return their bodies to formless biomass...but I’m not going to.”</p><p>“Why’s that?” Romanoff asked, still seeming to be perfectly calm.</p><p>“...I made them too smart,” Alex admitted finally, voice quiet as he glared at the ground. “I was panicking a little when I first created them, alright? I’ve never actually formed a real Hive before and I rushed through the process a little. I mean, yeah, there’s the one in Chernobyl, but that one doesn’t count. That one doesn’t have a mind at all, it’s like a machine that I can program to do what I want, but otherwise it’ll just sit there, totally inert and without thought. My Evolved though…”</p><p>“What about them? They gonna rebel if you decide you don’t want them anymore?” Tony asked, voice rising with anxiety.</p><p>“No! No, they’d die happily if I asked them to, but that’s exactly the problem. They...love me, basically,” Alex admitted, embarrassed. “I made them too smart, and they’ve got enough of a mind to feel emotions, and they all adore me, for lack of a better term. They’re sort of like dogs that can talk and reason a little. They want whatever I want, and are smart enough to come up with simple plans on their own if I let them. </p><p>For all that Thor claims to be a god, no one on Earth really worships them like gods anymore, but now I’ve got a few thousand voices in my head that see me exactly like that, magnified by a hundred. I’m their god and master, and they’d all happily throw themselves into an active volcano if they thought it would please me. I didn’t mean to make them like that, but that’s what happened. I can’t just reabsorb them all now, it’d be like killing a few thousand puppies that just stared up at you in adoration as you strangled them to death.”</p><p>Nobody had any response to that other than Barton’s soft, “Damn dude, that’s rough.”</p><p>Eventually Alex couldn’t take the solemn atmosphere anymore. “I’m going to go shove rubble around for a little bit. Just go bother one of my Evolved when you need me. They’ll alert me if you guys need me for something.”</p><p>He took off down the street and didn’t look back.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Alex sat on the tippy top of the Empire State Building and overlooked New York City. He saw the surrounding destruction, as well as Stark Tower. The skyline was slightly different from both his original dimension, and the dimension where he’d been reborn.</p><p>He amused himself for a short while by trying to spot all the differences in the buildings. He couldn’t ignore the sight of Leviathans laying atop various structures or crashed into the streets though, and soon immersed himself in the yellow-tinted world of the Hivemind.</p><p>The emotions just about bowled him over. As he’d told the Avengers, the Evolved worshipped him, fully and completely, and he made their day just by paying them the slightest bit of attention.</p><p>Part of him cringed back from the adoration, but another part felt completely at home. He chose to push through his discomfort in the name of getting shit done and learning to live with it. He’d be stuck with them for the foreseeable future, so he’d best get used to their attitudes now.</p><p>His mental presence spread out between them all, and he saw the city through three-thousand sets of eyes. Metaphorically speaking of course, since the Hunters, the most numerous type of Evolved, were like his combat form, in that they didn’t have true eyes, and yet they saw the world all the same. Blacklight was bullshit like that.</p><p>He shifted rubble, carried Chitauri corpses and tech, and jealously guarded the amassing piles all at once as he existed in the bodies of his entire Hive simultaneously. He noticed that there were numerous human corpses around that had so far gone untouched. Survivors and first responders were starting to take care of them, but Alex knew that they needed help if they wanted to get the bodies collected before too much decay set in. He shuffled through hundreds of genetic sequences until he located the ones he sought.</p><p>He tweaked and combined the genetic codes together before sending out the instructions to all his Evolved. Suddenly, all his Evolved had spinnerets located somewhere on their bodies, and the forms of the Hydras began spinning spider silk from their mouths and manipulating the numerous strands with their many pointed legs to weave long, flat sheets of silk.</p><p>Once the sheet was long enough, they’d slice the long sheets into smaller ones which were then rolled up by a team of Hunters and carried on their backs to lay over the bodies of any humans they found before transporting the shrouded bodies to various sites nearest the first responders to await burial.</p><p>The Evolved were exceedingly careful and very respectful, sensing their King’s sadness over the deaths of so many innocent humans. </p><p>Even though the Evolved had stopped singing ages ago, they started up a slow, soft humming version of a funeral dirge as they worked. The humans still seemed wary, but they were much less on edge than when they had begun work hours ago.</p><p>Alex supervised everything, offering instructions and further direction to his Hive as they carried out their various tasks. Their efficiency was unrivaled by any group of humans you’d care to name. Unified under the watchful gaze of their God-King, the Evolved were happy to be of service.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Alex’s main body hadn’t moved in hours, but with the Hive running smoother than even the most well-oiled machines of Earth, his micromanagement was no longer necessary. Alex decided to take a break and explore one place he’d never truly tried very hard to conquer.</p><p>With Bio-Mass Effect made irrelevant by the addition of the Space Stone’s power, Alex no longer had to worry about focusing on making his enormous mass weigh less. He assumed his combat form with the addition of two new limbs.</p><p>Alex spead large wings that resembled a mix between those of a bird, a bat, and an insect. Large swathes of leathery membrane stretched across the ‘arm’ sections of the wing that separated into three large feather-looking constructs made of red-tinted insectoid membranes where fingers might have gone.</p><p>Alex lightened himself with the barest flicker of thought and took to the skies, climbing higher than any terrestrial animal had ever gone.</p><p>He completed complex aerial stunts and maneuvers that would have made any jet pilot green with envy. He dove and swooped through the clouds and let himself temporarily forget his troubles.</p><p>He flew over New York City, contemplating his next moves before one of his Evolved was approached by Bruce. Alex banked towards his friend’s location and dove. Bruce saw him coming in for a landing, and offered up on large arm for him to land on like he did when Alex was a crow.</p><p>Alex touched down lightly and folding his wings behind him as his clubbed, barbed tail swung sedately behind him. </p><p>“Hey Bruce.”</p><p>“Hey Alex.”</p><p>“What’s going on?”</p><p>“Well, we talked it over a bit more, and Natasha, Clint, and Steve decided to phone Fury for pickup back to the Helicarrier so they can debrief SHIELD on the situation. The rest of us are staying with Tony for the time being while we figure out what in the hell we’re going to do now,” Bruce turned and started walking back towards Stark Tower with Alex perched on one arm.</p><p>“Have they already left for the Helicarrier?”</p><p>“Yeah, why?”</p><p>“Perfect, because all that shit I told you all about me destroying the Tessearct and the scepter? Bunch of dirty lies. I had to wait for all of SHIELD’s loyal butt-monkeys to fuck off before I could really spill the beans. There’s a bunch of really important shit I need you all to know, but SHIELD absolutely cannot know anything about, under any circumstances, not until we purge them, at least.”</p><p>Bruce looked concerned, but not exactly upset that Alex had fibbed about destroying the artifacts of infinite power. He’d likely come to the same conclusion about why letting the government have access to shit like that was bad. Phase 2, anyone?</p><p>“Purge them of what?”</p><p>“HYDRA. Goddamn Captain Boyscout threw himself into the ocean before he had the decency to make sure his job was even done. Seriously, HYDRA's whole motto was about two heads rising up if one got cut off, and he thought getting rid of the Red Skull would magically solve the whole problem?”</p><p>“...Goddammit, Alex,” Bruce sighed tiredly. “Whelp, count me in. Can’t let you have all the fun. What’s the plan?”</p><p>Alex smiled with a mouthful of fangs.</p><p><em> Time to get to fuckin’ </em>work.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>all credit for the song goes to 'The Score' they rock. </p><p>idk if the song is too out of place but i agonized over what song i wanted to use for like 2 hours so thats what i ended up going with. i think it matched well with a quote from canon alex mercer where he responds "I was made for this" to something cross said to him. or was it the supreme hunter disguised as cross at that point? eh, don't know, don't care that much.</p><p>i'm a sucker for song fics, and i couldn't get the picture of an infected choir outta my head, like the turret choir from portal 2. also more of alex confusing the shit out of people will never not be funny to me. ppl be v confuzzled rn, lol</p><p>you can bet your ass every world leader ever is freaking the fuck out. that reaction is coming soon tho :)</p><p>also, i was reading more 'Civil War Team Iron Man' fics and my salt has returned in full force, if you couldn't already tell. seriously MCU, i swear your writers must have been half-asleep when they wrote some of that absolute hot garbage we got. i was so pissed in theaters when captain boyscout summoned thor's hammer. </p><p>that bitch is worthy of nothing more than a kick in the teeth if you ask me. just....i have no words, marvel. fucking smh. worthy? worthy of what? man left a teammate for fucking dead in a disabled suit and a vibranium shield to the chest in fucking siberia. idk what you call that marvel, but i call that attempted murder. </p><p>steve rogers can fuck off and go ingest an entire satchel of richards</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. BIG ANNOUNCEMENT (PLZ READ THE WHOLE THING)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>AAAAAAAAHHHHHH</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>so first off, i wanna apologize for just like, dropping off the face of the earth for like two weeks, but a lotta stuff has happened!</p><p>I've got some big news!</p><p>
  <strong>I'm rewriting the story!</strong>
</p><p>I was re-reading it, and i legit cringed a bit at the beginning chapters. when i came up with the idea for this fic, i was super excited to get to the avengers portion of it and totally rushed most of the build-up. i have since also completely changed the lore direction i want this story to go in, and i couldn't implement any of my new ideas without ret-conning a metric fuckton of my fic, hence the decision to re-write it. I feel like i was doing way too much 'telling' and not enough 'showing' anyway. i know i have a bit of a bad habit with infodumps in my fics, in dialogue especially, so i'm trying out a slightly new style of writing to do more showing and trying to restrain myself from explaining every single tiny detail. (lol wish my detail oriented mind luck, imma need it, fuck)</p><p>ANYWAY, what I wanted to know was how i should post the re-write, since i want all you lovely readers to have easy access to the re-write and i also don't wanna lose all the lovely comments you guys left.</p><p>so, should i put this story in a collection and just have the re-write as a whole separate fic, which would mean i get to keep the comments and you guys get the fic to read for posterity no matter how much my brain cringes at the beginning chappies with all of their shitty, shitty plot devices, OR should i just remove the old chappies and post the new chappies inside this fic, which would mean you guys lose access to the old story but nobody has to re-bookmark or otherwise save the new story? the comments related to the old story would still be there, which might be confusing for new readers, but meh?</p><p><strong>let me know what you guys want in the comments!</strong> i'm pretty good with either option, but i'm leaning towards just replacing all the chappies inside the story i already have posted.</p><p>FYI i already have a few of the new chappies written but progress is slow b/c my job consumes my life (lol see what i did there)</p><p>here's a sample portion of the new version of the first chappie!</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>His ribcage expanded, but it was a laborious thing. His breath echoed and rattled through his heaving chest as he fought for every breath, every desperate gasp of air. His fevered body fought with all its might against the virus ravaging it, but it was losing slowly, and he knew it.</p><p>He mentally raged against his inevitable death though. He would not go quietly into that good night. He had so much he wanted to do before he shuffled off the mortal coil, but it looked like he’d be forever denied the opportunity. He knew it was a long shot in the first place though, and he silently fumed about his inevitable fate.</p><p>Idly, he hoped he might be reincarnated as an animal of some sort, preferably some kind of adorable dog that would belong to a good family. He’d always desired to know what it was like to exist as something other than human.</p><p>He didn’t like being human. Too many responsibilities and expectations. Society was too flawed for him to find much enjoyment in it, but there was jack-all he could to to fix any of it. He was but one man, and not particularly well-off either. The world spoke the language of money, and he didn’t have enough of it for the world to give a shit about him.</p><p>Even if he managed to survive the COVID-19 currently ravaging his body, he’d be destitute. His insurance wasn’t very good, and they’d fight tooth and nail to avoid paying for any of his treatment, he just knew it.</p><p>When he realized that, he silently despaired. His family was gone—had been for a while, and he didn’t have any friends. His life was lonely and a bit pathetic if he was being honest with himself. He’d just never managed to make meaningful connections with anyone outside his own family, not that he’d tried particularly hard, mind you. </p><p>Humanity was just so…mundane and boring. Nobody strove for anything anymore. Space travel was all but a relic of the past, and everywhere he turned, the world just seemed to be falling further and further to pieces.</p><p>He thought about all of this as he struggled for breath in an overcrowded hospital. He knew deep in his soul that he wouldn’t be making it out of this one alive, and to be honest, he wasn’t sure if he even wanted to any more.</p><p>
  <em>Please, let my next life be more fulfilling than this one. Let me know what it is like to soar above the clouds, or to swim through the deepest oceans, or to race across the earth upon four legs. Let me truly live, wherever death might take me.</em>
</p><p>He passed from the world not with a bang, nor even a whimper, but the slow, quiet breath of someone letting go.</p><p> </p><hr/><p> </p><p>Though he was unaware of it, his soul resisted the siren call of the afterlife. He wasn’t ready to go yet. Many souls experienced something similar, but unlike them, he turned away from the light and instead looked to the shadows. Something was there, he could tell. Enormous beings sang enchanting songs as they drifted through that endless space. </p><p>Something primal told him that if he went there he could never come back, the darkness would snatch him up and make him its own. It would bury its claws into his immortal soul and change him forever, humanity ripped away or so thoroughly twisted he would become something entirely new.</p><p>New. He rather liked the sound of that. What had humanity ever done for him? His life as a human had been sad and lonely and unfulfilling.</p><p>So he turned his back on the shining light and went gladly into the dark, changing the course of history forever. The dark welcomed him. The beings Sang and he listened to their wonderful Symphonies as he drifted through the dark, not noticing when the darkness crept in and made itself at home in his soul.</p><p>He saw without eyes and heard without ears, and it was all so very beautiful. He did not wish to leave the dark comfort of this place, but something was calling to him. The dark and the Songs of the beings could not drown out the ringing bell of fate.</p><p>When he traveled down the dark path that seemed to call out to him in particular, he would wake and remember none of this. He wasn’t yet ready, but he would be.</p>
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<a name="section0013"><h2>13. RE-WRITE IS UP!!</h2></a>
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    <p>I love all the feedback you guys gave me, and the full first chapter of the re-write has been posted! This fic has been renamed and added to a series containing the re-write, so go check it out! i'm taking the story in a new, even more creepy and eldritch direction, so look forward to that! i have the first few chapters written already and I will ATTEMPT to post them every Saturday morning until i run out of buffer, at which point the updates are once again at the whims of my muse and general motivation to write.</p>
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